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 enriching your festive decor or giving away unique party favors, our printable hand fans promise to be the highlight of your celebration!
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Where are the Free Printable Downloads?
• Find them at the bottom of this post, surrounded by a purple dashed box.
• Tap the purple download link buttons to save the PDF file(s) to your device.
• You can open this type of file with Adobe Reader.
• Printables are available in two sizes—A4 and US Letter (8.5″ x 11″).
• Download the paper size for your printer or print shop.
• Please read our full Terms and Conditions.
Free Printable Paper Hand Fans
Red is an auspicious color in Chinese culture, representing good fortune and joy. Gold symbolizes 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:
- We’ve turned our Free Build A Snake Craft Printable into a gold snake, which features on the first of the three fans.
- 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.
- 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.
Check out our other Lunar New Year crafts, like Red Money Envelopes, Printable Chinese Take-Out Boxes, Chinese Paper Lanterns, and Chinese New Year Firecrackers.
Year of the Snake
Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake begins on 29 January 2025.
Your Chinese zodiac is Snake if you were born in one of these years: 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, and 2025.
We have shared Chinese New Year Printables since the Year of the Monkey in 2016. These printables are updated annually to reflect that year’s zodiac animal.
If you are planning a party or Chinese Banquet, be sure to take a look at these 50+ Delicious Recipes for Chinese New Year.
Chinese Paper Fans
Unsurprisingly, 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 a folded fan that is 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 radiating 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 about it here if you wish.
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. They’re also designed to be lovely decorations!
- Use a single fan as a placeholder at a dinner party, which could double up as party favors.
- Combine three fans to make a large semicircular fan (as shown in the first image), which you secure with a tassel for added flair.
- Or combine those two large fans to make a rosette to display on a 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, another popular Chinese style called Wan-Shan.
However you decide to use the fans, they are so simple to make. You only need a few craft supplies: a pair of sharp scissors or a paper trimmer (to trim the white edges from the printable) and optional extras like red yarn to create a tassel and glue tape to combine multiple fans.
Chinese New Year Paper Hand Fans
Materials
- White Paper
- Free Printable Template links in blog post
- Red Raffia or wool, or string
TOOLS
- Roller Glue or
- Double-Sided Tape
Instructions
- To make a small fan print off your preferred design onto good quality (120gsm/30lbs) thick paper.
- Cut the white border off.
- Fold concertina fashion – about ½"/1cm widths.
- 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.
- Thread red raffia (or ribbon, or wool) through and tie a double knot to secure. Cut off any excess.
- Fan out, and you’re done!
- 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.
- 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.
- Carefully attach another fan to the sticky one.
- Thread red raffia (or ribbon, or wool) through and tie a double knot to secure. Cut off any excess. Fan out.
- To make a tassel, simply cut a bunch of raffia lengths and tie them around to secure.
- To make a full rosette, stick two large fans together and add a hanging loop at the back to hang on the wall.
- The photo below is of the large fan and I love how it turned out!
Printable Hand Fans Download
Grab the free printable Chinese New Year Paper Fans in the purple box below. Then, follow the instructions in the tutorial card above to make the fans.
Download The Free Printable Here:
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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 opened 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 when 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 Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Use the hashtag #TPPBprintables so we can find you!
Diane
January 7, 2017 @ 11:27 am
Recall the song by the Rolling Stones – “Little Red Rooster” – very apt for the coming year.