Chinese Children’s Fan Etiquette

According to cits.net, folding fans appeared in the Song Dynasty and gained popularity among literati and officials during the Ming Dynasty. They wrote poems or even painted on the fans. The fans with poems or paintings on them served as artistic symbol for social status. The paintings cover a wide range from landscapes, flowers, figures, and so on. In the Qing Dynasty, being widely favored by men of letters, the Chinese fan was in full flourish. Group Of Chinese Women With Fans, Canton, China (c1880)

Afong Lai (Restored 4071802299  Wikimedia Commons

Children and Fans in China

Almost every child in China has a fan of its own. They are the playthings of Chinese babies, as children in this country delight in rattles. Chinese nurses amuse their young charges with their fans, which they are never without. The children learn to handle their fans very expertly, for the fan in the hands of a Chinese has a certain language of its own. Rich and poor alike, every boy and girl, must have a fan. A poor little Chinese boy who has scarcely a whole garment and who rarely gets a good meal, will still have a fan and use it constantly. — Placer Herald, 1898

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