Dongtai Feather Fans

Dongtai Feather Fans

　　 The most renowned ones are made by the Tang family from Anfengchang in Dongtai City. They are carefully crafted using feathers from the wings of sea storks. In the early Qing Dynasty, when Kong Shangren was dredging the Huai River estuary in Yancheng, he received a feather fan from the sea stork gifted by a friend. He was full of praise and immediately composed a five-character regulated verse on the subject of the “feather fan”: “A guest brings two round fans, masterfully crafted and unlike the rest. The cut edges shimmer like clouds, the woven handle gleams like delicate jade. Occasionally nestled in one’s arms, it once crossed the Eastern Sea. To me, a casual guest beneath the pines, it brings a gift of cool breeze.”