Chinese fans & varies little trinkets

Description

Chinese fans date back 3,000 years. The main styles are round fans and folding fans. Ancient people painted and wrote on fan surfaces. More than cooling tools, they are artworks and opera props. Some fan‑making skills are intangible cultural heritage.

The text above the fan is Nüshu, an ancient phonetic script from Jiangyong, Hunan. It was passed down mother‑to‑daughter, only shared among women. Characters are slim, slanted and diamond‑shaped. Women wrote it on folding fans, silk handkerchiefs and cloth books to share feelings, stories and songs.