Chinese Fan Design Workshop

The history of the Chinese fan dates back to over 3,000 years ago, around the Shang Dynasty (circa 1600 – 1046 BCE). Named Shanhan, one of the earliest known “fans” wasn’t like the hand-held ones we still see today. These were tied to a horse-drawn carriage and used to block the heat of the sun and shelter passengers from the rain (much like today’s umbrella). However, the Shanhan soon evolved into a long-handled fan called the Zhangshan. Made of thin, yet tough, silk or bird feathers, this type of fan was mainly used by the emperor’s honor guard for decoration. It wasn’t until the Zhou Dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago, that people started using folding fans to cool down.

The “feather fan” became popular among the aristocracy because it was extremely expensive to produce. Made of bird feathers, it was widely recognized as the symbol of wealth, authority, and wisdom.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), the fan became popular among common people as more affordable bamboo fans and hand-woven cattail-leaf fans were invented. The popularity of these fans continued until the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 CE). Yet, around the same time, a new type of silk fan was also introduced. Favored by young women in the imperial palace, the silk fans were round to resemble the moon and are often called “round fans” or tuánshàn. Later, this moon-shaped fan took on many other forms, including flat ovals and even the shape of a Chinese plum flower or sunflower.

The ribs of these silk round fans were traditionally made from bamboo or animal bones. The handles were usually engraved with decorative patterns and embellishments, while the main “face” of the fan was often embroidered or hand-painted with calligraphy and nature-inspired scenes such as mountains or flowers. These particular fans remained popular in ancient China for almost 1,000 years, and they are still considered an important art form of Chinese culture today.

The fan-making industry in China primarily consisted of family-run businesses that produced their designs in small quantities and sold them from the front of their workshops. The city of Hangzhou was the hub of industry during the Southern Song dynasty (1127 – 1279 CE).

Composed of panels and ribs, folding fans are designed to rotate around the rivet at the head. For the ribs, craftspeople used a variety of materials, including sandalwood, ebony, tortoiseshell, ivory, mother of pearl, bones, and bamboo (the most common).

The panels of the folding fan were typically made from paper, silk, or other fabrics. As the main surface of the fan, this part provided a canvas for craftspeople and artists to add calligraphy and painted scenes.

From the Song Dynasty on, fan painting became an art form of its own. Writers and artists of ancient China tended to adorn the objects they loved with their art and stories, so it’s no surprise that fans became a canvas for many creatives of the time. Fans decorated with paintings and calligraphy became known as “scholars’ fans” and often reflected a person’s status.

Artwork featuring birds and flowers symbolized beauty and gracefulness, making them a popular subject among young women. Scholars, however, preferred fans adorned with the calligraphy of ancient stories that depicted wisdom and knowledge. Mythical creatures were also popular choices—dragons were frequently painted onto men’s fans while ladies typically preferred phoenixes.

Learn the precise techniques of applying ink to silk or paper in a fun workshop that fuses Western modes of artistic expression with Chinese art styles. Our workshop will help instill a basic understanding and appreciation of Chinese painting and the stylistic differences between Western and Chinese art.

Hangzhou Wang Xingji black paper fan
Founded in 1875, Wang Xingji Fan was founded on the basis of the essence of the Hang Fan. The black paper fan was made with exquisite materials and fine workmanship. Through the decorative arts such as painting and scrapbooking, the fan taste was greatly improved, not only as “ The tribute to the tribute court is also deeply loved by the people.

At the beginning of the Republic of China, Wang Xingqing, the son of Wang Xingzhai, succeeded his father. On the basis of retaining the traditional black paper fan, he absorbed the advantages of Japanese and French women’s fans and developed a sandalwood fan, which was used to pull flowers. The “hot flower” and “painting” techniques are unique in style and unique in style. The advent of Wang Xingji Sandalwood 绢 绢 fan not only won the domestic market, but also exported to Hong Kong, Nanyang and other places, Wang Xingji fans and thus famous overseas.

In 1929, the black paper folding fan of the West Lake Expo won the gold medal, and the sandalwood fan handle was awarded the third prize. It was even more famous. Many famous painting and calligraphy masters made poems on the Wang Xingji fan. Wang Xingji purchased materials from Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places, processed into a variety of exquisite fan bones, coupled with celebrity paintings and fans, so that the fan is worth a hundred times. By 1936, Wang Xingji had seized most of the market. During the Anti-Japanese War, Wang Xingji moved to Shaoxing Keqiao, and when he returned to Hangzhou in the late period of the Anti-Japanese War, he had already executed the ear of the Hang Fan. In May 1952, after Shu Lianji and Ma Xueji collapsed, Wang Xingji became the only surviving representative and descendant of Hang Fan.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Xingji’s production scale has achieved unprecedented development, becoming China’s famous multi-variety fan production base, with an annual output of more than 12 million fans.

Wang Xing Ji Fan has 15 major categories, more than 400 varieties, more than 3,000 suits, among which black paper fan and sandalwood fan are the most famous. The black paper fan production process requires 86, exquisite craftsmanship, unique style, and then painted “hang painting”, the picture is full and gorgeous, very expensive, especially the black paper is really golden, praised by the world; sandalwood fan uses technology The extremely difficult drawing, hot flowering and painting “three flowers” craftsmanship are exquisite and elegant.

Suzhou sandalwood fan

Since the Ming Dynasty, the Suzhou folding fan industry has a large number of famous artists. For example, there are Fangs who are good at making fans, and those who are good at bones are Ma Xun, Ma Fu Brothers, Jiang Sutai and so on. The sandalwood fan is made of a folding fan, and the fan bone is made of sandalwood.

In the 1920s, the Suzhou fan workshop represented by “Zhang Duo Ji” Fan Zhuang began the production of sandalwood fans with a large scale. Due to the innovation in craft production, many new fancy varieties were produced, and the styles were novel and beautiful. A wide variety of process technologies have become increasingly popular in Southeast Asia and other Southeast Asian countries, and have gradually replaced the traditional status of bamboo folding fans. The production workshops of Suzhou sandalwood fans have gradually increased.

In the 1930s, the famous “Wang Xing Ji”, a company famous for operating fans, chose several Japanese female fans sold in the international market, and commissioned Suzhou Sandalwood Fan Workshop to process sandalwood materials. This is the famous Hangzhou “Wang Xing Ji”. Sandalwood fan, because the trade name is in Hangzhou, so use Hangzhou scenic spots, such as “Jade Belt”, “Shuangfeng”, “Xiqi”, etc., as the name of all kinds of sandalwood fans.

Sichuan Zigong Gong Fan
Gong Fan was created by Gong Jue Wu of the Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 100 years. On Guangxu’s “Saibao Club” in Chengdu, “Gong Fan” was praised by the emperor for its fan-like appearance. In addition to the gold medal, he also gave the name “Palace Fan”. Gong fan is made of high-quality materials and carefully woven into fine bamboo threads. The bamboo fan is peach-shaped, the fan surface is thin like a flap, the color is yellow, the light is translucent, the soft and delicate, the brocade, the pattern is on the top, the lifelike, or the landscape characters, or the flowers and birds, the fish, all the ivory, plus the ivory or the cow The fan handle made of bone, the silk fan pendant, is exquisite and exquisite, and is exquisite. It is called the world’s fine bamboo.

Zhejiang Huzhou feather fan
It is said that Huzhou has produced feather fans during the Three Kingdoms period. When Yan Zhenqing was the governor of Huzhou in the Tang Dynasty, he recorded the Wu Xing (Huzhou ancient name) Yao Yiwei fan in “Shi Zhu Ji”, indicating that the Huzhou feather fan was well known in the Tang Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the feather fan industry in Huzhou Fucheng was quite prosperous. During the Daoguang period, Huzhou founded the Qiu Yifeng Lufan Store. During the Guangxu and Xuantong years, it opened the old fan shop of Yan Zhengtai and Yan Yitai. From 1918 to 1927, it was the most prosperous period. There were 13 fan shops and 85 fan workers, with an annual output of 200,000 feather fans.

Guangdong Xinhui Kwaifan
In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the New Society planted palmapple and processed sunflower fans on a large scale, and in the Ming Dynasty, it flourished and was listed as a “tribute”. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, glass fans were created; in the Tongzhi years, a fire-painted sunflower fan was created; before and after the Revolution of 1911, a bamboo fan was created. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the sales volume of Xinhui Kwaifan was 120 million per year. In the 18th year of Guangxu (1897), it was exported to Russia, Britain, the United States, France, Cuba, Colombia, Peru, Chile and other 24 countries and regions in Europe and America, and won the gold medal at the Panama International Fair in 1915. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the “Three Ridge Fire Painting Fan” was awarded the “White Flower Award” and the “Quality Product Award” by the Ministry of Light Industry for three times.

·Sichuan Rongchang Xiabu Fan

Rongchang folding fan has a long history and has a history of 450 years. It is one of the three famous fans in the country and is known for its craftsmanship. Rongchang folding fan is divided into 10 categories, with more than 160 varieties of flowers, especially the whole Nan silk fan, Quan Nan carved silk fan, bamboo silk fan, brown jade silk fan. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was listed as a court tribute. For more than 400 years, Rongchang folding fans have been sold well all over the country and are famous overseas.

From the perspective of shape, the fans used in daily life mainly include two types of screens with short handles and folding fans with no handles. The difference is whether they can be folded and folded at will. The screen fan and the folding fan are different in structure. The screen fan is fixed with a handle in the middle of the fan surface, and the folding fan is fixed on the fan bone. Since the fan bone is connected by a nail, it can be opened and closed at will. From the material point of view, due to the variety of materials, the type of fan presents a variety of characteristics. Common in life, there are lupin, bamboo fan, fan, straw fan, puffer fan, paper fan (and) with a variety of craft fans made with precious materials.

Flat Fan

The flat fan is a traditional style of the Chinese fan. It consists of a fan and a fan handle fixed in the middle, and the handle is used as a hand-shake part. Since the structure of the flat fan is fixed, it cannot be folded. The production of flat fans mainly consists of making fan and fan handles and then combining the two. Due to the different fan materials, the production methods of various flat fans are also very different.

– Lu fan
The feather fan has been around for 3,000 years and is the oldest fan of China. The original lupin directly used the bird wing, and later the lupin made with the bird feather appeared. Most of the early lupin fans were long-handled fans, and later developed a self-sustaining short-handle fan. It is said that Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms and Gu Rong of the Jin Dynasty were all slain by the commanding fan of the Qianjun Wanmao. Therefore, the “Yuan Fan Lun” has always been praised as a symbol of calmness and wisdom. There are many areas where lupins are produced in China, among which Huzhou is the most famous in Zhejiang, followed by Jiangsu Gaochun and Hubei Honghu.

-Palace fan
The gong palace fan, also known as 纨 fan, group fan, Luo fan, appeared behind the fan, before the folding fan. The group fan was popular in the Western Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty for more than a thousand years. After the Song Dynasty, it was also driven by the folding fan. It was deeply loved by the ladies and literati. Most of the ancient gongs and lanterns were made in fine and beautifully decorated.

-Gong Fan
Gong Fan can use bamboo silk to compose the landscape of Bada Shanren, the flying sky in Dunhuang murals, and the flowers and birds painted by Qi Baishi. Gong fan also has a wonderful effect: the front is looking at the light, the fan is white, the birds and flowers are flickering in the shackles; to the left, the pattern is flashing blue, the leaves are white; to the right, the pattern is white, the leaves Flashing cyan, amazing.

-Pu Kui fan
Pu Kui is an evergreen tree of palm family. It has large leaves and long stems. It has good toughness and folding resistance. It is prolific in Guangdong and Fujian. Pu Kui fan is a fan made of palmetto, which has two categories: “three flag fan” and “glass sunflower fan”. Pu Kui leaves three leaves at each harvest, cutting the middle leaves, hence the name Sanqi. The Sanqi fan is a large sunflower fan that is seen every day; the glass sunflower fan is made of soft, smooth, crystal-clear white sunflower leaves. It is a valuable craft.

-Straw fan
In the Qing Dynasty, Wang Tingding wrote in the “New Record of the Fan Fan”: “The wheat fan: the straw is made into a flat belt, which is wide and the volume is made into a regular shape. If the basin is large, the bamboo piece is used as the handle on both sides. Sticking five-color enamel satin a small circle, embroidered mountains and waters, characters, very fine, golden and moist, light and convenient, two Zhejiang people used for Yanju. There are also thin bamboo for a circle, densely packed wheat straw, convergence In the handle, the picking of the gardenia, the ancient money, the shape of the scorpion, all the children pass the Yan fan.” He said that the wheat fan is a wheat straw fan, also known as wheat straw fan, wheat straw fan.

Folding fan

After the folding fan was introduced from the Northern Song Dynasty, some people started to copy, but the scale of production was after Ming Chengzu. The folding fan imitation of Sichuan Rongchang was quite influential in the Ming Dynasty. Since then, the center of folding fan production has been transferred to Zhejiang and Jiangsu, especially the Hangzhou fan. It is perfected on the basis of Japanese folding fans and the quality is more lean. The manufacturing process of the folding fan mainly includes making a fan bone, pasting the fan surface, and then fixing it with a nail.

-Paper fan
The fan of the folding fan is useful for crepe and yarn, but the most commonly used material is paper. Paper fans are divided into white paper fans and colored paper fans. The most important paper fans are black paper fans and gold paper fans. The white paper fan is made of multi-layered rice paper, and there is also a middle-lined “leather” and “continuous history” as the backing paper. The black paper fan is made of brown bamboo and mulberry paper. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hangzhou’s paper fan production has been well-known, especially Wang Xingji’s black paper fan. The craftsmanship is fine, the decoration is exquisite, combined with painting, engraving, inlaying and scrapbooking techniques, which greatly enhances the artistic position of the fan.

-Sandalwood fan
The sandalwood fan is a kind of folding fan, because the fan bone is made of sandalwood. Sandalwood is an evergreen small tree with a fragrant and refreshing heart. In the 1920s, the Suzhou fan workshop, represented by Zhang Duoji, was started to take shape. At that time, all kinds of sandalwood fans produced in Hangzhou and Suzhou were distributed by Hangzhou Wangxingji Fanzhuang, and were respectively named as “Jade Belt”, “Shuangfeng” and “Xiyu”. The various folding fans made of sandalwood are small, exquisite, exquisite and decorative, and are very popular among women.

Our Workshop costs vary depending on the lengths of the visit and the context of the sessions. Depending on your needs, the length varies between 60 mins to a full day. The cost ranges from £90 per hour per class or £500 for a full day visit. There will be a £3 per delegate charge to cover learning materials.

1, Hosting at a venue

In return for hosting at a venue, we will deliver our workshop and sell tickets on our advertised workshop list for £10-£15 per delegate per hour. We will provide you with all the advertising material, offer you two free places for the class and handle all the bookings. There are no other charges other than any additional places above the free places you may want to book.

2, Organize an online event

In return for helping to organize an online event, we will deliver the course via our online platform and sell tickets on our advertised courses list for £6-£10 per delegate per hour. We will provide you with all the advertising material, offer you one free place for the course and handle all the bookings. There are no other charges other than any additional places above the free place you may want to book.

3, Run a workshop exclusively for your school, organization, or community

If you would prefer we can deliver the course exclusively for you. This can be at a venue or online. For venue based you simply supply us with the venue, projector and screen, and basic refreshments and you manage who attends the course on your end. If it is online you just need to organize who will have access to the session. We don’t advertise the course or allow the course to be opened up beyond your own group. As a rough guide, we charge £90 per class or £250 per half day, or £500 for the full day delivered on a single day. There will be an additional £3 per delegate charge to cover learning materials.