The fan, which is made of thin bamboo strips, thin silks, feathers, leaves of sunflowers, and papers, is a traditional Chinese handicraft used for cooling. Fans, for they can bring people cool, were called "Shelter from the Sun" in ancient China, and called "Cool Friends" by the literati. The craftwork fans as commodities, which are made of bamboos, trees, papers, fans, ivories, hawksbills, jades, feathers of fowls, leaves of palms and arecas, stalks of wheat, and stems of cattails, can be produced in a variety of types with graceful shapes and exquisite structures. China is always regarded as the kingdom of fans. In the history, fans made in China were sold to Japan and European and American countries, where Chinese fans exerted certain influences on the local fan-production and palace rites.
Fans enjoy a long history of about 3 to 4 thousand years in China. Fans, originally, were not used for cool, but for sheltering from the sun and keeping off sands for emperors during their outgoing inspections. After several thousand years of development, fans were developed into several-hundred types, like familiar ones as folding fans, feather fans, silk fans, sunflower fans and group fans. To produce an exquisite fan, various artistic techniques should be integrated, including carving, weaving, knotting, calligraphy, painting, mounting, poker-work, jade article, lacquer work, embroidery, etc. For example, there are more than 100 types of fan head at the bottom of the fan, such as bamboo nodes, plum blossoms, small vases, big catches, round heads of chufa, and so on. The surfaces of such fans as sandalwood fans, bone fans, ivory fans and shell fans are usually carved with elaborate patterns. The price of an ordinary fan will rise hundredfold as long as it is elaborately carved by a skillful craftsman, or painted or written by a famous person.
Fans have many functions. Other than cooling in summer, they can act as tools during the artistic performance like pingtan (an art of Suzhou City), drama, dance and other folk arts. In the ancient times, dancers liked to hold fans while dancing, and the preference has been handed down until now. The fan dance has become a dancing art with distinctive Chinese characteristics.
