Free Printable Paper Hand Fans for Chinese New Year

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Get ready to add a splash of color and culture to your Chinese New Year celebration with our Free Printable Paper Hand Fans.

Ideal for enhancing your festive decor or giving away unique party favors, our printable hand fans promise to be the highlight of your celebration!

Don’t have the time for these printable red paper hand fans now? Tap the share icon in the bottom right of the screen, then tap the heart icon ♥ to save it for later!

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Free Printable Chinese New Year Hand Fans - Year of the Dragon

Free Printable Paper Hand Fans

Red is an auspicious color in Chinese culture, representing good fortune and joy. Gold represents power, wealth, longevity, and happiness. These colors have been used in all of our Chinese New Year Printables and are designed to complement each other.

Naturally, our printable fans are red and have been accented with gold elements across the three designs:

  1. We’ve turned our Buildable Chinese Dragon into a gold dragon, which features on the first of the three fans.
  2. The second fan has the Chinese characters 恭禧發財, or Gōng xǐ fā cái in English. This is a common New Year greeting to wish prosperity and fortune.
  3. And finally, plain red with a double gold band at the top. This can be used to paint or draw on your own designs with gold-colored ink.

Where Is The Free Download?

  • You will find the download links further down this page, surrounded by a purple box outline.
  • Tap the purple download buttons to save the file(s) to your device.
  • Printables are available in two sizes – A4 and US Letter (8.5″ x 11″).
  • Download the paper size that is appropriate for your printer.
  • UK Readers! No printer? No problem! Get your printables printed and sent to you with Doxzoo!

Year of the Dragon

10 February 2024 is the start of the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon!

Your Chinese zodiac is Dragon if you were born in one of these years: 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 200, 2012, and 2024.

We have been sharing Chinese New Year Printables since the Year of the Monkey in 2016, and these printables are updated annually to reflect that year’s zodiac animal.

It also happens that the Year of the Dragon was one of the first big things we celebrated on The Purple Pumpkin Blog back in 2012 with a Chinese Banquet!

If you are planning your own dinner party, be sure to take a look at these 50+ Delicious Recipes for Chinese New Year.

It comes as no surprise that China has the longest historical record of making fans in the world. There are many names for Chinese fans, with the general term being Shan, and the earliest reference to a fan was in AD 121 when a large leaf was used as one.

Our Chinese fan printable is the folded kind that is super easy to make with our free decorative paper. It mimics the type of fan that is held together with strips of wood and folds out in a radiating fashion. The word for this type of fan is Che-San, and they are actually Japanese style hand fans that were introduced to China during the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD).

The history of Chinese fans is fascinating, and you can read more here if you wish.

Free Printable Chinese New Year Hand Fans To Download

Ways To Use These Awesome Fans

Fans are, of course, perfect for cooling off on hot days, and there is no reason why you can’t use our printable fans for just such an occasion, but they’re really designed to be a lovely decoration!

  • Use a single fan as a placeholder at a dinner party, which could also double up as party favors.
  • Combine three fans together to make a large semi-circular fan (as shown in the first image) that you secure with a tassel for added flair.
  • Or combine those two large fans to make a rosette to hang on the wall.
  • Use them as charming photo props at parties.
  • You could also paste the printable paper onto a paper plate, trim it to fit, and attach a large craft stick to the center back. This will create a stiff fan, which is another popular style called Wan-Shan in Chinese.

However you decide to use the fans, they are so simple to make, and you only need a couple of craft supplies—a pair of sharp scissors or a paper trimmer (to trim the white edges from the printable) and some optional extras like red yarn to create a tassel and glue tape if you wish to combine multiple fans.

Small Paper Hand Fans for Lunar New Year

Chinese New Year Paper Hand Fans

Yield: As Many Fans As You Need!
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Beginner

Make a single small fan, or join several together to make a large paper hand fan. This beautiful craft is simple and great for Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year

Materials

  • White Paper
  • Free Printable Template (links in blog post)
  • Red Raffia (or wool, or string)

Tools

  • Scissors
  • Roller Glue or
  • Double-Sided Tape

Instructions

  1. To make a small fan print off your preferred design onto good quality (120gsm/30lbs) thick paper.
  2. Cut the white border off.
  3. Fold concertina fashion - about ½"/1cm widths.
  4. Use a single hole punch to punch holes at the bottom end - you can only do a few at a time, so make sure you line them up as best you can.
  5. Thread red raffia (or ribbon, or wool) through and tie a double knot to secure. Cut off any excess.
  6. Fan out, and you're done! Small Paper Hand Fans for Lunar New Year
  7. To make a large fan you will need three printable sheets per fan. They can be the same design, or you can mix them up like I did. Follow steps 2 - 4 above.
  8. If you are using different designs, decide which will be the middle fan section, if using the same design, it doesn't matter. Apply roller glue or double-sided tape down the outside length of the middle fan, on both the left and right sides.
  9. Carefully attach another fan to the sticky one.
  10. Thread red raffia (or ribbon, or wool) through and tie a double knot to secure. Cut off any excess. Fan out.
  11. To make a tassel, simply cut a bunch of raffia lengths and tie them around to secure.
  12. To make a full rosette, stick two large fans together and add a hanging loop at the back to hang on the wall.
  13. The photo below is of the large fan and I love how it turned out! blank

Did you make this project? Share it!

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Printable Hand Fans Download

Grab the free printable Chinese New Year Paper Fans in the purple box below to make the fans using the instructions in the tutorial card above.

Download The Free Printable Here:

UK Readers! No printer? No problem! Get your printables printed and sent to you with Doxzoo!

Visit The Purple Pumpkin Printables Shop for more awesome printables and products! (Opens in new tab.)

The free printables are in PDF format and can be opened with the free-to-use Adobe Acrobat Reader (or other PDF Readers). If the download is a Zip File, it can be downloaded with WinZip, WinRar, or other software typically bundled on computers. Printables designed and created by The Purple Pumpkin Blog and its Designers are for PERSONAL USE ONLY and NOT FOR RESALE under any circumstances. Please read our full Terms and Conditions. You are welcome to print these free printables at an online print shop or print shop in-store if you don’t have access to a printer; however, some print shops may not print licensed characters. Colors may vary slightly on printing due to different screen and printer settings. You may share this free printable blog post on social media, including Pinterest, and on your blog/website with a link to this blog post. Please DO NOT share the PDF on social media or your blog/website. If you use any of our printables, it would be awesome to know about it! Post a picture on the social media platform you hang out on, and follow us on FacebookInstagram, or Pinterest. Use the hashtag #TPPBprintables so we can find you!

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