Last year, I went to Italy as an exchange student. Before leaving, I asked my mother what gifts I should take to the teachers and the students there. Mom said that the Chinese fan was a good choice, for China is praised as "the Fan Kingdom". I couldn't agree more, because it is more than a tool for cooling. It's also an important part of Chinese culture.
I went shopping and bought three kinds of Chinese fans. The first kind was the feather (羽毛) fan for the teachers, which was made of bird feathers. It was the symbol of Zhuge Liang, a very smart man in ancient China. The fans I bought for the girls were silk fans. They were also called" round silk fans". Fans of this kind were made of silk with paintings of beautiful women, birds or flowers. They were very popular with women of all ages. As for the boys, I picked the folding fans from Rongchang, a place in the west of Chongqing. The folding fans were made of paper and bamboo and there were great paintings and calligraphy (书法) on them.
At the welcome party in Italy, my new teachers and classmates were all excited to get the wonderful fans. And they were even more excited after learning about the stories and culture behind them.
