Ручной веер: история и применение

Device used to cool oneself

A handheld fan, or simply hand fan, is a broad, flat surface that is waved back and forth to create an airflow. Generally, purpose made handheld fans are folding fans, which are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (such as paper or feathers) mounted on slats which revolve around a pivot so that it can be closed when not in use. Hand fans were used before mechanical fans were invented. It works by understanding the concept of cool air. On human skin, the airflow from handfans increases evaporation of sweat, giving a cooling effect due to the latent heat of the evaporation of water. It also increases heat convection by displacing the warmer air produced by body heat that surrounds the skin, which has an additional cooling effect, provided that the ambient air temperature is lower than the skin temperature – which is typically about 33 °C (91 °F). Next to the folding fan, the rigid hand screen fan was also a highly decorative and desired object among the higher social classes. They serve a different purpose to the lighter, easier to carry handfans. Hand screen fans were mostly used to shield a lady's face against the glare of the sun or fire.

Hand fans originated about 4000 years ago in Egypt. Egyptians viewed them as sacred objects, and the tomb of Tutankhamun contained two elaborate hand fans.

Archaeological ruins and ancient texts show that the hand fan was used in ancient Greece at least from the 4th century BC and was known as a rhipis (ῥιπίς). Christian Europe's earliest known fan was the flabellum (ceremonial fan), which dates from the 6th century. It was used during services to drive insects away from the consecrated bread and wine. Its use died out in western Europe, but continues in the Eastern Orthodox and Ethiopian Churches.

There were many kinds of fans in ancient China. The Chinese character for "fan" ([[wikt:扇) is etymologically composed of the characters for "door" ([[wikt:戶) and "feather" ([[wikt:羽). Historically, fans have played an important aspect in the life of the Chinese people. The Chinese have used hand held fans as a way to relieve themselves during hot days since the ancient times; the fans are also an embodiment of the wisdom of Chinese culture and art. They were also used for ceremonial and ritual purposes and as a sartorial accessory when wearing hanfu. So far, the earliest fans that have been found date to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period. It was suggested by the Cultural Relics Archaeology Institute of Hubei Province that these fans were made of either bamboo or feathers and were oftentimes used as burial objects in the State of Chu. The oldest existing Chinese fans are a pair of woven bamboo, wood or paper side mounted fans from the 2nd century BC. The Chinese form of the feather fan, known as yushan, was a row of feathers mounted in the end of a handle. The arts of fan making eventually progressed to the point that by the Jin dynasty, fans could come in different shapes and could be made in different materials. These round fans remained mainstream even after the growing popularity of the folding fans.

From the late 18th century until 1845, trade between America and China flourished. During this period, Chinese fans reached the peak of their popularity in America; popular fans among American women were the brisé fan, and fans made of palm leaf, feather, and paper. The most popular type during this period appeared to have been the palm leaf fan. The earliest visual depiction of fans in Japan dates back to the 6th century AD, with burial tomb paintings showed drawings of fans. The folding fan was invented in Japan, with dates ranging from the 6th to 9th centuries; it was a court fan called the (衵扇), after the court women's dress named akome. According to the Song Sui (History of Song), a Japanese monk Chōnen (:ja:ちょう然/奝然) offered the folding fans (twenty wooden bladed fans (桧扇) and two paper fans (蝙蝠扇) to the emperor of China in 988. Later in the 11th century, Korean envoys brought along Korean folding fans which were of Japanese origin as gifts to Chinese court. The popularity of folding fans was such that sumptuary laws were passed during Heian period which restricted the decoration of both hiōgi and paper folding fans. The earliest fans in Japan were made by tying thin stripes of [[Hinoki Cypress (or Japanese cypress) together with thread. The number of strips of wood differed according to the person's rank. Later in the 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced it to the west and soon both men and women throughout the continent adopted it. the non bending fans (uchiwa) are popular and commonplace. The fan is primarily used for fanning oneself in hot weather. The uchiwa fan subsequently spread to other parts of Asia, including Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and such fans are still used by Buddhist monks as "ceremonial fans". Fans were also used in the military as a way of sending signals on the field of battle. However, fans were mainly used for social and court activities. In Japan, fans were variously used by warriors as a form of weapon, by actors and dancers for performances, and by children as a toy. Traditionally, the rigid fan (also called fixed fan) was the most popular form in China, although the folding fan came into popularity during the Ming dynasty between the years of 1368 and 1644, and there are many beautiful examples of these folding fans still remaining. The mai ogi (or Japanese dancing fan) has ten sticks and a thick paper mount showing the family crest, and Japanese painters made a large variety of designs and patterns. The slats, of ivory, bone, mica, mother of pearl, sandalwood, or tortoise shell, were carved and covered with paper or fabric. Folding fans have "montures" which are the sticks and guards, and the leaves were usually painted by craftsmen. Social significance was attached to the fan in the Far East as well, and the management of the fan became a highly regarded feminine art. Fans were even used as a weapon – called the iron fan, or tessen in Japanese. See also, the gunbai, a military leader's fan (in old Japan); used in the modern day as an umpire's fan in sumo wrestling, it is a type of Japanese war fan, like the tessen.

Every Dano (May 5 of the lunar calendar) when the heat began, there was a custom in which the king distributed hand fans to his vassals. The vassal, who received a hand fan from the king, did an ink and wash painting and handed out white fans to his elders and the indebted people, which has made the practice of exchanging hand fans widely popular. These cultural factors also contributed to the creation of various types of hand fan in Korea.

The hand fan (Quạt tay) is an integral part of Vietnamese culture. According to the Vân Đài Loại Ngữ, a book written by Lê Quý Ðôn, in the old times Vietnamese people used hand fans made from bird feather and quạt bồ quỳ, a type of fan made from leaves of the taraw palm tree. The folding fans only started appearing in Vietnam in the 10th century, known as quạt tập diệp in Vietnamese. Christian missionary Christoforo Borri recorded that in 1621, both Vietnamese men and women frequently held hand fans as part of their daily garment. Many villages in Vietnam have long dating traditions of making exquisite hand fans such as Canh Hoạch village and Đào Xá village, with fan making dating back to the early 19th century. Simple handheld fans, such as quạt mo and the quạt nan are commonly found in the Vietnamese countrysides and popularly used among farmers and working people. The Quạt mo has the simplest design, cut directly from the dried Areca leaf stems, then pressed to flatten. It appears in "Thằng Bờm", a well known Vietnamese ca dao (a type of Vietnamese folk song). The quạt nan also has a simple design, made by sewing a half moon shaped Maclurochloa leaf onto a straight bamboo stick.

Hand fans were absent from Europe during the High Middle Ages until they were reintroduced in the 13th and 14th centuries. Fans from the Middle East were brought by Crusaders, and refugees from the Byzantine Empire. In the 15th and early 16th century, Chinese folding fans were introduced in Europe and later played an important role in the social circles of Europe in the 18th century. The Portuguese traders first opened up the sea route to China in the 15th century and reached Japan in the mid 16th century, and appear to be the first people who introduced Oriental (Chinese and Japanese) fans in Europe which lead to their popularity, as well as the increased oriental fan imports in Europe. The fan became especially popular in Spain, where flamenco dancers used the fan and extended its use to the nobility. European fan makers have introduced more modern designs and have enabled the hand fan to work with modern fashion.

In the 17th century the folding fan, and its attendant semiotic culture, were introduced from China and Japan. By the end of the 17th century, there were enormous imports of China folding in Europe due to its popularity and to a lesser extent, Japanese folding fans were also reaching Europe by that period.]] It has been said that in the courts of England, Spain and elsewhere, fans were used in a more or less secret, unspoken code of messages. These fan languages were a way to cope with the restricting social etiquette. However, modern research has proved that this was a marketing ploy developed in the 19th century – one that has kept its appeal remarkably over the succeeding centuries. This is now used for marketing by fan makers like Cussons & Sons & Co. Ltd who produced a series of advertisements in 1954 showing "the language of the fan" with fans supplied by the well known French fan maker Duvelleroy. The rigid or screen fan (éventail a écran) became also fashionable during the 18th and 19th century. They never reached the same level of popularity as the easy to carry around, folding fans which became almost an integrated part of women's dress. The screen fan was mainly used inside the interior of the house. In 18th and 19th century paintings of interiors one sometimes sees one laying on a chimney mantle. They were mainly used to protect a woman's face against the glare and heat of the fire, to avoid getting "coup rose", or ruddy cheeks from the heat. But probably not in the least it served to keep the heat from spoiling the carefully applied make up which in those days was often wax based. Until the 20th century houses were heated by open fires in chimneys or by stoves, and the lack of insulation made many a house very draughty and cold during winter. Therefore, any social or family gathering would be in close proximity to the fireplace. The design of the screen fan is a fixed handle, most often made out of exquisitely turned (painted or guided) wood, fixed to a flat screen. The screen could be made out of silk stretched on a frame or thin wood, leather or papier mache. The surface is often exquisitely painted with scenes ranging from flowers and birds of paradise to religious scenes. At the end of the 19th century they disappeared when the need for them ceased to exist. During the 19th century names like the Birmingham based firm of Jennens and Bettridge produced many papier mâché fans.

Modern day hand fans are less popular than in the past, but are still used by many.

A large group that continues to use folding hand fans for cultural and fashion use are drag queens. Stemming from ideas of imitating and appropriating cultural ideas of excess, wealth, status and elegance, large folding hand fans, sometimes or more in radius, are used to punctuate speech, as part of performances, or as accessories to an outfit. Fans may have phrases taken from the lexicon of drag and LGBTQ+ culture written on them, and may be decorated in other ways, such as the addition of sequins or tassels. Folding fans are often used to emphasize a point in a person's speech, rather than for express use of fanning oneself. A person might harshly snap open the fan when engaging in "throwing shade" on (comically insulting) another person, creating a loud snapping noise that punctuates the insult. Drag dance numbers also utilise larger hand fans as a way to add flair and as a prop, used to emphasise movements in the dance. Popular drag comedy webshow UNHhhh has used folding fans as a point of humour, with the sound made by a folding fan unfolding coined onomatopoeically as a "thworp" by the editors.