The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-05-29
On Chinese Fans.
Why Fans Have Sixteen Ribs.
from Harper's Bazar.l


Almost every large city in China, and GER
tainly every important division of the empire,
has its own characteristic FAM or else there is
something peculiar in the mark, color, or orna-
mentation Of the common "folding'' fan as
seen in that particular district, by which it
may be distinguished from its ubiquitous
congener. For the folding fan, as the Chinese
call it, is the fan par excellence; and all that
ingenuity of design has hitherto accomplished
has not succeeded in displacing this convenient
form from the affections of the people at large.
The large palmleaf, with its strongly bound
edges and natural handle, large quantities of
which are exported annually from Canton and
elsewhere, may possibly be the cheapest and
most compelling of all kinds, but it is
not very portable, and can not readily be
slowed away about the person, or stored so as
to last into a second summer. The folding fan,
on the other hand, occupies but little space;
and when not in use may be stuck in the high
boot of the full-dressed Chinese gentleman, or
jacket which, with the addition Of curt
calecon. constitutes the entire toilette of
Chinese cody Besides, the folding fan opens
into tolerable smooth surface, fairly we'll
adapted for the painters art and even the
dirtiest specimen of Chinese vagabondage
loves to rest his eye upon some gaily painted
flower or a spray or two of the mueh-prized
bamboo. Consequently the folding fan obtains
all over the eighteen province of China Prop
er, and beyond, far away across the Great Wall
over the steppes of Mongolia and the noun
tains offTibet. Of the more elaborate kinds pro-
duced at Canton for export to Europe, with
their exquisitely carved or perforated ivory
handles, etc., it will suffice to say that such
are quite unknown even in the highest and
wealthiest circles of Chinese society, the fold
ing fan being rarley the vehicle of extrav-
agant expenditure in this respect. 1t may be
made indeed, either of paper or of silk; for
handle, ivory or sandalwood may be used; but
even then the general get-up is as rule plain,
while for the common folding fan of the en-
pire, bamboo is the material most extensive ely
employed, being at once the cheapest and
most durable of all woods Pendants of am
ber, jade, ivory, carnelian, and other sub
stances are also affected by the more refined
and fan case beautifully embroidered in some
quaint pattern accompanied, perhaps, by some
appropriate classical allusion, is a very ordin-
ary birthday present from a sister to her
brother, or from wife to her husband. The
number Of "bones" or ribs to a folding fan is a
matter which is by no means left to chance.
Sixteen, including the two outer pieces, may
be quoted as the standard; but fans made in
certain localities have more, as many as thirty
two, and sometimes even thirty-six. The rea-
son why sixteen is preferred is that such fan
opens into a convenient number of spaces to
receive the poetical inscription which custom
has almost, but not altogether, tied down to
given number of lines.
Irregular inscriptions are, however, not un-
common. The Hang-chow fan has a great
many bones. 1t is very strongly made article
and though only of paper prepared in some
way with oil, may remain plunged in water lit
is said) for twenty-four hours without injury
But this fan finds no favor with those who can
afford to pick and choose, and for rather
singular reason just as with the Chinese
white is the emblem of death and mourning,
so black is regarded as typical of moral impur-
ity, and black things are consequently avoided
on the strength of the proverb, Proximity to
vermilion makes man red; to ink, black"
Now the Hang-chOw fan is, with the excep-
ton of sprinkling of gold or silver on the
face, as black as twell could be- and it is there
fore at a discount even among those by whom the
most triding form of economy cannot be salts
factorily ignored. Old men, too, may use black
fans without scruple. Their age is held to have
placed them on vantage ground in this as in
all other respects: for, as Confucius observed,
"That which is really white may be in the
darkest dye without being made black" and a
man who has led for years spotless life is un-
likely to be influenced for the bad by mere
contact with fan. Black fans, with black
lacquer handles are made in Canton for sale to
the outer barbarian, the hated foreigner, whose
moral obliquity is regarded by the masses of
China as more prononcee than that of the
lowest of their low.
Some "fans'' are not fans at all. The 'steel
FAM is simply a bar of metal shaped and
painted to resemble ordinary closed fan,
and carried sometimes as a life-preserver,
sometimes by the swell-mob men and rowdies of
China, to be used at close quarters with muir
derous effect. OF the same species is the we'll
known "dagger fan, F" which consists of an ele-
CANT imitation in lacquer of common folding
fan, but is really sheath containing within
like a small Malay Kris This dagger was in
into China has always been strictly forbidden.
fully introduced into Canton, Foochow and
now manufactured by the enterprising natives
of the first mentioned port.
Fans for spring and autumn are smaller
than those used in summer reminding one of
the old Roman luxury of summer and winter
fan too early or too late in the year. There
are, indeed, no days absolutely fixed for the be-
ginning and end of the fan season, as in the
case of the summer and winter hats worn by
all employees of the government, and which are
supposed to be changed simultaneously all over
the empire; but Chinese custom has made it
as ridiculous for man to carry fan before or
after conventional date, as it would be with
us tive ear white waistcoat in March or No
vembor.