Hangzhou Fans

Hangzhou Fans

　　Hangzhou fans boast a long history, exquisite craftsmanship, and beautifully decorated fan surfaces, making them a renowned traditional product in China. The century-old Hangzhou Wang Xingji Fan Factory has become the largest and most diverse comprehensive fan manufacturer in China’s fan industry, earning the reputation of the “Kingdom of Fans.” Hangzhou is a famous city for fan-making in China, and the phrase “Elegant Hangzhou Fans” has been used since ancient times. Especially after the Southern Song Dynasty established its capital in Lin’an (now Hangzhou), many fan artisans gathered in the city, leading to numerous shops and thriving business that operated day and night. The area around Qinghefang in Hangzhou became particularly well known for this. By the mid-Qing Dynasty, “there were over 50 paper fan businesses in Hangzhou, employing 4,000 to 5,000 workers.” Since then, Hangzhou fans have been as famous as Hangzhou silk and Longjing tea, collectively known as the “Three Treasures of Hangzhou.”   The predecessor of today’s Hangzhou Wang Xingji Fan Factory was the Wang Xingji Fan Shop, founded in the first year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty (1875). Its founder, Wang Xingzhai, came from a family with generations of experience in fan-making. He began learning the craft in his childhood and had become a master artisan by his twenties. The black paper fans he made won awards multiple times at international expositions in Milan (Italy), Panama, and the West Lake International Exposition, gaining widespread fame. They were even presented as tribute to the imperial court, which led to black paper fans from Hangzhou being known as “Tribute Fans.”   There is a wide variety of Hangzhou fans, including fifteen major categories and thousands of designs—such as black paper fans, sandalwood fans, white paper fans, ivory fans, ladies' silk fans, theatrical fans, travel fans, and children's fans—ranging in size from as large as 3.3 chi (approximately 1 meter) to as small as just 3 inches. Among these, the “Three-Star Brand” black paper fan is the most famous. The fan surface is made from mulberry bark paper from Yuchin in Lin’an, persimmon lacquer from Zhuji, and coal ink from Jian’ou in Fujian, undergoing a total of 86 meticulous production steps. The fan is tested under strong sunlight, soaked in cold water, and boiled in hot water for over ten hours each, then dried. It remains uncreased, unbroken, and as flat as new—still a perfectly functional fan. This type of fan can be used both to ward off summer heat and to provide shelter from sun and rain, hence earning the nickname “half an umbrella.”   It won the top prize—the Silver Cup Award—at the first China Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Awards. The surface and frame of sandalwood fans are both made from sandalwood, so the fragrance lingers as long as the fan is preserved—even after eight or ten years, it still gives off a refreshing scent when used. Fan painting and calligraphy is a unique art form in China. A fan is not only a daily necessity but also a work of art. An ordinary fan can become exponentially more valuable and full of refined charm once adorned with artwork or calligraphy by notable artists, making it highly cherished. Zhejiang has a rich tradition of fan art, and many renowned painters and calligraphers throughout history have contributed timeless works to this art form.   The decorative designs on Wang Xingji fans are rich in content and diverse in technique. The factory often invites esteemed artists to create paintings and poems for their fans. Meanwhile, dozens of in-house painting and calligraphy artists at the factory have conducted extensive research on historical and contemporary fan art, mastering sophisticated techniques. Their works span themes such as mythological stories, human figures, scenic landscapes, layered mountains, winding streams, rural houses and pavilions, exotic flowers, and rare birds. In terms of calligraphy, all styles—regular, cursive, clerical, and seal—are represented.   The veteran artisan Zhu Nianci began using real gold ink to write on fan paintings in the 1950s, becoming the pioneer of micro-calligraphy on paper fans in China. In recent years, he has written works such as the Thousand Character Classic, Diamond Sutra, West Lake Poetry, and Two Hundred Tang Poems on fan surfaces, as well as creating the Ten Thousand Character Tang Poem Fan. Most recently, a young artist at the factory, Jin Gang, wrote out the complete text of the “Four Books” (namely, the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, the Analects of Confucius, and the Mencius) on a single paper fan—totaling 57,430 characters. This creation holds the current world record for the smallest font and highest character count on a paper fan. These artists skillfully blend beautiful literature, elegant calligraphy, and exquisite fans, making them truly the finest among fans. (Hangzhou)