Artistry of fans

A historical bridge in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, is known for being associated with Wang Xizhi, the renowned 4th-century calligrapher. It is said that he often walked across the bridge, and one day he saw an old woman, who sold paper fans there, looking stressed because of poor sales. Wang wrote on the fans and told the woman to tell people he did the calligraphy. The fans then sold out.

Painting and writing calligraphy on round, flat paper fans, or folding ones, was popular among intellectuals and artists in ancient times. They saw it as a way to show their technique, artistic creativity and imagination in a limited space.

The National Art Museum of China is showing fine examples of fan art from its collection until Sunday. These selected painted fans were dated as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when folding fans became a trend in cultural circles.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays.1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6400-1476.