For the historical artifact assignment, I chose to research and create the Chinese folding fan. I chose this artifact because, coming from a Chinese background, I grew up loving Chinese fans. My grandma has a collection of them that I would play with whenever I visited her.

This was a really fun project for me as I love recreating things and being crafty. This assignment is well structured, which helped me to visualize everything I needed to do process-wise from beginning to end.

I chose to recreate this fan. I love the graceful painting of the bird and the flowers, which is what made me excited to work on it.

To create this fan, I used coffee stirring sticks, glue, tape, newsprint paper, brown kraft paper, graphite, black marker, and watercolour pencil. I put the sticks together with hot glue (this prop is not actually functional), and then pleated and painted on the paper before attaching it to the sticks.

I wanted my in-situe photograph to express Chinese elegance. I set up this photo on a red draped backdrop as it is a popular Chinese colour. I displayed the fan at an angle to reflect the way a fan would usually be held, and it is next to a plant pot with leaves that echo those illustrated on the fan.

Chinese Calligraphy examples

The style of these Chinese calligraphy examples inspired my paragraph description. I took a piece of newsprint paper and crumpled it to appear older, and I used watercolour pencil to illustrate the red stamps. Then I wrote my paragraph in black marker.

Self Evaluation

I give myself a 9/10. I don’t give myself full points because I did not have good time management working on this- I started on week 2 of the given two weeks. However, I still followed all the steps in the brief: I completed meaningful research, created a good quality artifact and photograph that considered the period of the artifact, and delivered a cohesive and complementary spread.

Sources

Chattyfeet, et al. “Get a Handy Look at the History of Traditional Chinese Folding Fans.” My Modern Met, 19 June 2020, mymodernmet.com/chinese-folding-fans-history/.

“Chinese Fans.” The Fan Circle International, www.fancircleinternational.org/history/chinese-fans/.

“Chinese Fans.” China Online Museum, 11 Dec. 2016, www.comuseum.com/culture/fans/#Chinese Fans.