Lacquer fan – unique handmade art product in China

The combination of colors and different painting techniques make Chinese lacquer fans unique.

In recent times, lacquer fans with special techniques have become popular in China. From Nanjing to Yangzhou, from Suzhou to Xuzhou, it is easy to see tourists holding lacquer fans of different colors taking pictures at scenic spots...

Lacquer fan. (Source: Xiaohongshu)

Requires dexterity, meticulousness, creativity

Lacquer fans are handmade by combining the use of hand fans and embossing painting techniques - the water-insoluble properties of the paint.

This art originated from the traditional fan and lacquer culture of the Chinese people during the Han Dynasty.

Compared with the complicated technical steps of manual lacquer art, lacquer fans are simpler and the operations are much more streamlined.

To create a lacquer fan, you need a handheld fan (folding fan or round fan) combined with natural lacquer from the lacquer tree - a deciduous tree native to southern China.

Natural lacquer is usually of low yield as a tree can only produce about 10kg of raw lacquer in its entire life cycle. Therefore, to save costs, some businesses choose cashew lacquer - a synthetic paint containing phenol and methanol.

Variety of lacquer colors. (Source: Summer Kitchen)

With all the materials, the maker only needs to follow these steps: choose the favorite paint color and drop the paint into the water, use a wooden stick to stir the paint layer to spread gradually on the water surface, dip the fan face into the water and gently move the fan face.

With the rippling movement of water, the fan surface will gradually show natural patterns such as stars, sky, river, sea, mountain...

The Chinese call the process of making lacquer fans “using paint as a brush, using a fan as paper, half by man, half by heaven”. This art also requires dexterity, meticulousness, creativity and rich imagination.

Due to the random nature of water flow, lacquer fan makers will create fans that are not the same. It is this unpredictability that makes the fans special, attracting the attention of many people.

Philosophy of life "follow nature"

It can be seen that the art of making lacquer fans clearly reflects the lifestyle and philosophy in Chinese culture. Since ancient times, Chinese philosophy has had the idea of ​​"following nature", typically Lao Tzu - author of the book Tao Te Ching, who taught the theory of "Wu Wei" - meaning doing nothing, letting things happen naturally in harmony.

Lao Tzu used the principle of "wu wei er wu bu wei" (literally meaning doing nothing but seeing nothing to do, then doing nothing) to refer to people who understand the laws of heaven and earth, live in harmony with nature, and have a calm and open mind.

According to him, people living in heaven and earth need "people to follow the earth, the earth to follow the sky, the sky to follow the Tao, the Tao to follow nature".

Similarly, with the art of making lacquer fans, when practicing making a fan, the maker needs to rely on the movement of the water flow to let the lacquer color penetrate the fan surface. Only after being lifted out of the water can the patterns on the fan surface be clearly seen.

The process of dipping the fan in lacquer. (Source: Summer Kitchen)

Each fan has different images and colors and must depend on the direction of the water flow so that the lacquer color on the water surface can easily penetrate, making the rough fan more beautiful.

Similar to human life, in Lao Tzu's philosophical thought, living is realizing the laws of nature, not forcing, doing things wholeheartedly without pursuing results.

The rapid popularity of lacquer fans has shown the strong vitality of traditional Chinese culture. Many provinces and cities in China are now also strongly promoting lacquer fans as a creative, unique and convenient cultural tourism product.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/quat-son-mai-san-pham-nghe-thuat-thu-cong-doc-dao-o-trung-quoc-272316.html