Hidden Beauties on Focus

“Crab chasing” is among the unique features of Sa Huynh village, Quang Ngai, Vietnam. It is a ritual performed by young people of a wide range of age – from kids to emerging adults - which occurs once a month when the moon is hidden. This is when the crabs cannot discern the environment because of their bad sight without the support of the moonlight. A team was set up quickly without notice in advance; they knew each other too well to email or text. People called each other like a wind chime – one calling another and then this one calling the next. It seems like the force of nature - the sign from the up above sky, the wind whispering from the sea - brought them together.
The set up slowly heated up as they liked to chitchat on the way to the beach. A team includes 3-4 catchers who catch the crabs, 2 torchers who provide light, 1 keeper who keeps the achievements in a bucket. Usually there are more than enough people; we always let people in to learn or observe as long as you are prepared to run. Because however laid-back they were on the way to the site, the ritual, once started, was breathtakingly fast-paced. It is like a sweating work-out session without any amount of warm-up. The kind of crabs we were chasing – the “Wind crabs” that are small and run quickly like the wind – could not see us without the moonlight, but the torch we had to use to detect them informed them about our visit. No matter how fast they were, the catchers were faster; with limited light from the torchers they could see a very sign of a crab’s little move in its hole in the sand, dash to it, fall onto the ground, and catch it. Falling is necessary because it provides extension to your body while your arms are free to sweep for the crabs. Every 5 seconds, the catchers fall and get up with a secured crab to hand to the keeper. The torchers and keeper’s job is not easier; they had to chase after them to provide logistic support. The closer we came to the end, the responsibility of the keeper became heavier not only with the weight of all the crabs, but also because she had to keep those life-yearning crabs from not escaping the bucket. After the race we’d enjoy the crab soup cooked with the freshly caught ingredients.
Crab chasing is a great bonding experience since kids, teenagers, and adults go together as a team and learn from each other. I, coming from the city, had the chance to relearn about the relativity of what defines privileged and deprived, of have and don’t have.