China has been dubbed the "kingdom of fans" for many years. As many fans were decorated with paintings, poems or calligraphy, they were not only tools for cooling, but also symbols of status and taste in art. Due to the limited space, special shape and different textures of these fans, it is very difficult to paint on a fan. An ancient artist said that painting on the surface of a fan is like a girl dancing on debris. Those that held a famous artist's painting or calligraphy were highly prized possessions.

There were many kinds of fans in ancient China, though only two types with paintings, circular fan or rigid fan, popular in the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), and folding fan, prevalent in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The circular fan was often used as a cover to hide a female's mouth or face when laughing, to add more charm to the shy women of ancient times. Deeply loved by young ladies, the round fan was popular in China for thousand years.

In Beijing, there are some studios offer lessons for moon-shaped fan painting. Huiliang Xiaoyuan is one of them. It is an offline community of Guohui Academy, an online cultural exchange community co-sponsored by the China Radio International and Beijing Huizhi Chuangwen Technology Co., Ltd.

Apart from moon-shaped fan painting lessons, it also offers other cultural training lessons, such as Guqin (a plucked seven-string instrument of Chinese zither family), Chinese tea tasting, Chinese painting and martial art. For more information, just pay a visit to Wudaoying hutong.

Recent Lesson for moon-shaped fan painting: August 23 19:30-21:30

Expense: 120 RMB/person

Address: No. 35 Wudaoying Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Tel: 13301010105