1. Chinese Fans 2. Beijing Opera Facial Masks 3. The Silk Road 4. The Land of Porcelain 5. The Importance of Chopsticks Chinese Elements

Chinese Fans

A: Fans seem to have special meanings in Chinese culture. I have received a number of them as gifts from my Chinese friends. The fans are very pretty, so, I assume, they are not meant to be used. Also, they are too cute for a man, like me, to use.

B: Fans used to be a favorite item for women in China. You may have noticed that nearly all female figures in traditional Chinese paintings carry a silk fan. In the movies of the 1930s, and 1940s, fans are a very visible article for Shanghai women on the Bund. Usually, the structure of the fans is made of sandalwood, and the faces are made of silk, or paper. Because the fans are always scented, women who use them appear even more attractive. Fans are, probably, one of the most appropriate expressions of female elegance. Men also use fans but, these fans are, usually, much bigger. Men’s fans often use valuable materials for their structure but, and the faces are always painted with plants, landscapes, or calligraphy, to express the owner’s status and aspirations.

A: But, none of the fans I have look the same as what you just told me. The paintings are also different. Mine are painted with either Beijing opera masks, or Chinese dragons.

B: As a result of the open-door policy, fans have become popular again, not for people to use at home but, as gifts for foreigners. However, unlike fans of the old days, the ones people use as gifts, nowadays, do not take a lot of craftsmanship to make. Neither are the materials unique. In some of the popular tourist markets around Beijing, you can buy traditional Zhejiang fans made of blue printed cloth. Instead of sandalwood, various scented, substitute materials, are used for the structures. Because fans are small, inexpensive and, typically Chinese, many people like to use them as gifts from their overseas trips. I hope Westerners appreciate these gifts.

A: My Mexican friend told me that Chinese fans are “all over the place” in Mexico. The same is, probably, true in Chinatowns throughout the United States.

B: That reminds me of an article by a Chinese writer. He wrote that two former Soviet Union experts paid a special visit to a fan factory in Suzhou during the 1960s. They wanted to buy some fans to take home. The workers were very excited about their visit. The factory held a meeting of its 200 workers to discuss the production plan. The were determined to make the best fans they could for their Soviet friends. Now, although fans are still a very good gift for foreigners, we seem to be using them excessively. Someone needs to alert the fan factories, and people who go on overseas trips, about the over-supply of fans.

Colored Lanterns

The 15th day of the first lunar month is the lantern Festival in China. It is the custom to hang red lanterns on the gate. Children play with colored lanterns, and people go to squares and streets to view and admire decorative lanterns. It is recorded that lanterns adorned the Lantern Festival at least 3,000 years ago, when they were used in memorial ceremonies for the Heavenly Emperor. By the Tang Dynasty, the court had connected lanterns with Buddhism, and made the lighting of lanterns at the Lantern Festival a part of official protocol.

Colored lanterns in different regions have their own specific feature. Farmers in northern Shanxi Province make lanterns out of pumpkins, with materials like cotton or in the shape of the head of a goat. In Beijing, which had long been a dynastic capital, the colored lanterns are mainly in the style of imperial palace lanterns.

The shapes of the lanterns hung up at festivals have auspicious implications. Lotus-and-fish- shaped lanterns symbolize wealth; watermelon lanterns and pomegranate lanterns symbolize many offspring; chicken lanterns and sheep lanterns symbolize luck; and elephant lanterns symbolize the refreshment of everything. Riddles are often in scribed on the lanterns at lantern fairs. The riddles are composed in elegant language and have ingenious structures. Guessing the answer to a lantern riddle is supposed to be good omen.

1. What kind of fans did Chinese women carry in the 1930s? 2. What does a typical fan for a man look like? 3. Are there many fans in Mexico?