The ancient Chinese loved fans. The earliest fans were made of feathers.
One of the ancient Chinese gods, Zhong-Liquan
(the war god), often carried a fan of feathers, although no one knows why. Perhaps he simply liked it.
Over the years, the clever Chinese people
made fans from all kinds of materials including straw and wood. But it was
not until the Ming Dynasty that the Chinese discovered the art of paper fan
folding.
They did not invent the folded paper fan. That invention arrived
from Japan and Korea on the Ming Dynasty ships that wandered the earth in search of
treasure.
