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Fan
has more than three thousand year history in China. In its early
days fan was used as an ornament rather than fanning for cool.
In Zhou Dynasty emperor and empress¡¯ vehicles were equipped with
fans to shield protectig from wind and dust, which was called
shielding fan. Thereafter big shielding fan was used in the guard
of honor of emperor and high rank officials to show power and
prestige. According to ¡° Gu Jin Zhu¡± the earliest fan was made
from pheasant tail with long handle to be used as an ornament
carried by the guard of honor, shielding off the Sun and dust.
After Han Dynasty Bamboo fan in Hunan province and Silk fan in
Shandong province were widely used as a cooling tool meanwhile
it gradually became a kind of ornament. During that time a famous
art craftsman had ever made a 7 wheel fan which was operated by
one person and could cool the whole room. Therefore it might be
the origin of ceiling fan and table fan in our modern life.
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Worldwide
fan has its interesting stories. In ancient Egypt fan was taller
than man and was made from palm tree leaves. In addition the larger
the fan, the more powerful its master. In the 9th century a fine
folding fan was invented by Japanese, which was thought as a symbol
of luck. In the middle of 16th century folding fan became popular
in Europe, just as French writer Volta said, ¡°a woman with a fan
was in the same situation as a man without a sword.¡± The first book
of Fan research was written by William Kirk in 1797 In this book
the fan using by madams was as skillful as flag-wagging by sailor.
With the development of modern science the cooling function of fan
is gradually replaced by electric fan and air conditioner. But people
will never discard fan for the sake of art collection. In 1981 a
group of artists from New York and Milan designed a series of crafts
including sofa, cup, vase, which were all shaped as a fan. In 1980
a German made fan, which was made from pearls and decorated by gold,
ruby and gems was auctioned at 20,000 SF in Switzerland. |
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