The history of the making of traditional Chinese fans can be traced back to Western Han Dynasty. The practical use of fans has decreased with the coming of electric fans and air conditioner. As traditional crafts, however, fans are still liked for their artistic value, especially those with good paintings. 

China has been making fans since 200 B.C. During the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C – A.D. 23), Ban Jieyu, a famous woman writer, wrote, in admiration of fans, the poem Song of Grievance: "The newly spun silk from Qi is as white as snow, the round fans made of the silk shine as the full moon." Folding fans appeared in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420—581) and became very popular during the Ming (1368—1644) and Qing (1644—1911) dynasties because they were convenient to carry. Since the earliest fans in China were made of feathers, the Chinese character for "fan" has the character for "feather" as a component.

In ancient times fans were used to keep cool and to ward off strong sunlight and dust. Wang Dao, a prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317—420), said, “I often use my fan to fend off dust and cool myself in summer.” People from different walks of life liked fans for their practical use. Most widely used of all the various types were palm-leaf fans. Fans in the south were generally made of ribs and coverings, which might be all white or all black on both sides. Some coverings were painted gold, with or without designs, or sprinkled with gold paint on one side, while the other side was used for poems and calligraphy and the other side for painting. This type of artistic fan is still favored by many people today. Some fans were decorative, made of quality materials and with great artistic skill. Ivory fans, for example, were used as tributes to the imperial court and were regarded as symbols of power and position. The practical use of fans has decreased with the coming of electric fans and air conditioner. As traditional crafts, however, fans are still liked for their artistic value, especially those with good painting.

Black fan (folding fan)

Fans can be made of many materials, such as ivory, sandalwood, feathers, paper, silk, bamboo, hawksbill tortoiseshells, and palm leaves, etc. Thus there is rather a variety of fans, like palace fans, folding fans, black paper fans, feather fans, palm-leaf fans, Gong fans, ivory fans as well as Sandalwood fans, etc. The outline of covering paintings of Fans may be round, folding, kidney-shaped or shaped like a phoenix’s tail, ancient bell, or crab-apple blossom.

Those fans with high artistic values are usually painted by well-known artists with paintings, poetry, calligraphy or prints of seals, and some of them are even decorated with ivory, jade or pearl. The Palace Museum collection shows us many such valuable ancient fans.  

(Editor: Li Guixiang)