Fan Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Suzhou fans are a specialty of Suzhou, comprising three major categories — folding fans, sandalwood fans, and silk palace fans — collectively called "Suzhou elegant fans" (Suzhou yashan). Since the Ming and Qing dynasties they have been widely transmitted mainly in Suzhou and its surrounding areas. In the Southern Song there were already people in Suzhou making folding fans themselves; by the Xuande reign of the Ming, workshops were set up for production, and famous-brand products appeared, such as the renowned black-bamboo-ribbed gold-dusted fan. During the Shunzhi reign of the Qing, Suzhou fans became a tribute item for the imperial court, and the fan-making industry began to flourish. The sandalwood fan evolved from the folding fan; made of sandalwood, it gives off a natural fragrance. Since its first creation at the beginning of the 20th century, the sandalwood fan has been loved by people at home and abroad for its unique craft characteristics. After the 1980s, people's lifestyles changed dramatically, and the advent of electric fans and air conditioners sharply reduced the importance of fans. In the late Qing and Republican period, in Shanghai alone there were over a hundred Suzhou fan shops and curio stores dealing in Suzhou fan leaves and ribs; today only Wang Xingji and Duoyunxuan remain.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Suzhou elegant fans include many famous products; as the saying goes, "Among Wuzhong folding fans, those with ribs of red sandalwood, ivory, or ebony are vulgar conventions, whereas only those of palm bamboo or mao bamboo are called elegant objects for the sleeve." The making of folding-fan ribs is renowned for its rich variety and fine, meticulous work; the bamboo ribs after polishing are even, fine, smooth, and elegantly antique. Suzhou is the birthplace of the sandalwood fan, with crafts such as "pierced carving" (lahua), "pyrography" (tonghua), "engraving" (diaohua), and "painting" (huahua); the fan leaves are also painted with landscapes, flowers, and birds, appearing refined and pleasing. Silk palace fans mainly take shapes such as round, hexagonal, rectangular, and waist-round; the leaves are often painted with landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures, and inscribed with famous poets' verses, exuding an antique fragrance and being highly ornamental. The making of Suzhou elegant fans integrates superb skills such as shaping, mounting, carving, inlaying, and lacquering, and has always been an indispensable palm treasure for literati and scholars.
The fan rib
Of the many possible ribs, only palm and moso bamboo make the refined pocket fan, and the polished rib comes out even, smooth and archaic.
Drawn, burnt, carved and painted fans
Drawn, burnt, carved and painted in turn, a sandalwood fan passes dozens of operations from the billet to the finished leaf.
Folding fans and palace fans
The folding fan opens into a fan shape from a bamboo rib; the palace fan hangs from a silk leaf, and the two belong to separate trades.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Suzhou fan-making craft centers on Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province; Suzhou is the birthplace of the sandalwood fan, and the painting on fan leaves is mostly the work of Suzhou painters. The making of folding-fan ribs is renowned for its rich variety and fine, meticulous work; the bamboo ribs after polishing are even, fine, smooth, and elegantly antique. The numbering of Suzhou fans has been carried from the "old brands" to the present, and the name of Suzhou elegant fans appears in local gazetteers and in literati inscriptions. In the Ming, the fan industry and the calligraphy-painting mounting industry around Gusu shared a group of carvers and painters, so the patterns on fan leaves and ribs often followed the same lineage as the mountings.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present only three or four local Suzhou fan-making artisans remain, and some crafts are on the verge of being lost. Xu Yilin (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born 1933, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu. He is a representative inheritor of the fan-making craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the first batch, and a Suzhou folk craftsman. The making of folding-fan ribs is the core of the whole folding fan, renowned for its rich variety and fine, meticulous work. The fan ribs made by Xu Yilin are exquisitely crafted, rich in style, appreciated by both refined and popular tastes, and imbued with a strong literary flavor. His representative works include the "Peacock"-brand water-polished-rib folding fan and the 9.5×18 water-polished bamboo-rib folding fan, among others. Xing Weizhong (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born August 1954, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He is a representative inheritor of the fan-making craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fourth batch, a Chinese master of arts and crafts, and a senior arts-and-crafts artist. In the practice of craft transmission he emphasizes constant refinement and continuous innovation. In the 1980s he created the 50-centimeter large pierced-and-pyrographed sandalwood fan "Tang Bohu Dian Qiuxiang" (Tang Bohu Points Out Autumn Fragrance), pioneering the making of large sandalwood fans. Later he successfully developed the large double-sided dissimilar sandalwood fan "Renwen huicui · Gewu shengping" (A Gathering of Culture · Singing and Dancing in Peace). In traditional pyrography he incorporated Western painting techniques, boldly applied the shallow-incision knife method, and filled the incised lines with real gold powder, giving the whole fan leaf a grand and magnificent effect. His representative works include the ebony gold-outlined fan "Concubine Yang on a Tour" (Guifei chuxun tu), the large double-sided dissimilar pierced-and-pyrographed sandalwood fan "A Gathering of Culture · Singing and Dancing in Peace", and the large pierced-and-pyrographed sandalwood fan "Tang Bohu Points Out Autumn Fragrance", among others.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xu Yilin 01-0193
- Chen Zifu 03-1339
- Xing Weizhong 04-1864
- Sun Yaqing 05-2777
- Wang Mingde
- Liu Zhengwen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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