SINOMANIA IN THE SCOPE OF FAN

Text by Madz Translation by Shi Yu Photos provided by Canton1840

SINOMANIA IN THE SCOPE OF FAN

Text by Madz Translation by Shi Yu Photos provided by Canton1840

In the 18th century, tons of fans with resplendent patterns and ornamentations were shipped across the ocean to Europe, where they became the status symbol of the upper class in Europe. These fans satis fied westerners’ longings for the mysterious east. There was once a time when fans were the“must-have” accessory for noble women, and young ladies even developed a set of fan-gestures as a basic sign language for social occasions.

As the 17th Century emerged the fan began to be recognized as a symbol of Chinese culture. In 1599, the establishment of the East India Company opened a door through which Chinese products, including ivory sculptures, gold-painted carpentry, folding fans and umbrella were sold to Europe.

It was during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796) and the development of ivory craftwork that fan exporting experienced its golden age. There were countless innovations of fans in terms of style, material and pattern. Those that were developedinclude the appeared ivory folding fan, the ivory circular fan, tortoise-shell folding fan, and so on. Fans sold to Europe at that time became a great big in fluence on the emergence of the“ Rococo” style. the style o“f Rococo”.

Ancient fans were made of bamboo, according to Shuowen Jiezi (literally Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters, an early 2nd Century Chinese dictionary from the Han Dynasty) by Xu Shen. Later, the range of materials used in fan production gradually extended—various rare and expensive materials were adopted to increase the stylishness of the fan. For then onwards, materials used varied in quality and started to become a crucial factor in donating different classes of society.

扇解“中國熱”

18世紀，一批批紋飾華美的扇具漂洋過海，成為歐洲上流社會的身份象征。這些外銷扇滿足了西方人對神秘東方的憧憬，一時間貴族婦女人手一扇，少女們更利用執扇的動作作為社交場合的必用手語。

扇子成為一大“中國象征”的緣由，最初始于16世紀末。1599年東印度公司成立，包括象牙雕刻、金漆木器、摺扇摺傘在內的廣州外銷產品開始進入歐洲。

乾隆年間，廣州象牙工藝得到發展，迎來了出品扇具的黃金年代。外銷扇從式樣、材質到花紋等不斷創新：有象牙摺扇、象牙團扇，紙面摺扇、紙面團扇、疊絲銀扇、玳瑁摺扉、金漆摺扇、檀香摺扇，甚至還有粘有羽毛的紙面刻花人物金漆摺扇等。這個時期出品的外銷扇甚至對歐洲“洛可可”風格的出現產生了深遠影響。

古代扇子是用竹料制成的。據東漢許慎《說文解字》記載：“箑，扇也，從竹疌聲”。后來，制扇材料逐漸發展至各種名貴材質，已增加其裝飾性。從此，使用不同材質的扇具開始成為區別階層及地位的要素。

Canton1840 is an initiator of mobile museums. Mr. Wen Shi, the late owner of the Canton1840 mobile museum, has been collecting forty thousand items representing Lingnan region culture and European culture in over forty years. (WeChat: canton1840)

文仕文化博物檔案館是“近代海絲文化流動博物館”概念的創導者。前館長文仕先生歷經40多年對珠江嶺南地域文化及歐洲百年文化的搜集，收藏了近40000件博物館級珍貴史料文物。（官微“canton1840”）