Chinese Fans

The Chinese are admired for many things. They are a very artistic and intelligent people that seem to have invented nearly everything under the sun in some form or another. Fans were thought to be originally used by the Chinese over 3000 years ago. The Chinese fans consisted simply folded paper and were used as a device to keep cool. As years went on the art work and ornamentation became more and more pronounced until it evolved into what we now know as Chinese fans.

As well as keeping cool, the Chinese fans were used as props, decorations and for story telling. The original type was the Chinese paper fan; however other types started to emerge. Today the traditional types of Chinese fans are Feather fans, palm leaf fans, silk fans and the folding fan.

Chinese feather fans are some of the oldest still around. Feathers from Magpies, Eagles, Kingfishers and peacocks were traditionally used to make them. Today goose feathers are the feather of choice. The goose feathers are peached shaped and each Chinese feather fan contains about 40 individual feathers.

The Chinese palm leaf fan is about 1500 years old. This version was and still is much cheaper to make than the feather or silk fans. The palm leaves also produce much more cooling than some of the other versions so its popularity caught on. Despite the availability of palm leaves in china, these fans do get quite rare at times. They are quite complicated to make. The leaves need to be dried for a period of 20 days until they are a jade color. They then need to be washed and pressed into shape.

The Chinese silk fans were associated with the upper classes and the aristocracy. They consisted of silk draped over pieces of bamboo. They are light but quite expensive. Despite the price they were well sought after.

Chinese fans today consist of mostly paper. They contain pictures drawing and even pieces of poetry. They are still used for cooling however, many like to use them for decorative pieces. Chinese fans are some of the most beautiful and interesting pieces of art to come out of the country. They have a long history and have evolved from something quite simple. The Chinese people seem to posses the ability to invent and to create something beautiful out of what is simple. Chinese fans are certainly an example of that.