High-Class Fan

Ah, the hand fan, one of the most simple, yet still important part of the Requisite Royal Regalia.

Ever since its invention in around 2000 BC, handheld fans have been widely regarded as a status symbol sought after by the upper echelons of society. In Ancient China, rounded fans made of silk or feathers were often used in ceremonies by members of the higher social classes. Meanwhile, huge oblong-shaped fans called wumingshan or zhangshan were reserved for the Emperor and represented imperial power and authority. Hence, it is quite common to find visual depictions of the emperors being surrounded by attendants holding fans.

The folding fan was invented in Japan and introduced to China during the 10th century. While this new fan model was initially rejected by the Chinese market for being "low-class", it eventually became fashionable enough for even the Emperor to adopt as a gift to his mother. These hand fans (both the rigid and foldable types) eventually made their way to Europe around the 15th to 16th century, where they became popular among the nobility, and many highborn women of the period would have their portraits painted while carrying a hand fan. The aristocrats would eventually incorporate the fans in their day-to-day social interactions, and proper fan etiquette may be featured in a Proper Lady's Lessons in Sophistication.

There are many reasons why the fan retains its classy appeal even though they have become more or less a dime a dozen nowadays. First of all, the hand fan is easily customizable, and expensive materials such as ivory and gemstones can be used to set the fans owned by the nobility apart from the "common" variety. Fancy needlework, painting, and/or poetry can also be drawn on the fans' screens in order to make them even more unique, one-of-a-kind, and exquisite (especially if they are handcrafted by famous artisans). Furthermore, the hand fans can be used to shield ladies' faces from the glare of the sunlight and keep their skin smooth and pasty. Its cooling effect also allows these women to walk around in their elaborate dresses without getting sweaty and icky. It is also commonly used by the ladies to cover their mouth while gossiping or doing a Noblewoman's Laugh because some cultures dictate that noblewomen shouldn't expose their mouths while talking. All in all, the hand fan is a great accessory for people who want to appear graceful and sophisticated in their social setting.

If the noble turns out to be Silk Hiding Steel, the Combat Hand Fan is also a perfect weapon that allows them to be deadly while still maintaining their elegance and classy persona.

Since fans are often seen as feminine objects, male characters who make use of them are also usually seen as being In Touch with His Feminine Side.

Sister Trope to High-Class Glass, High-Class Gloves, and Parasol of Prettiness.

Compare Paper Fan of Doom, a comedic trope where a Dope Slap is performed with a paper fan.

This trope is not about fans of works that are of high status, or fans who are highly regarded within the fandom.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Aikatsu Stars!: Tamagorō Miwa, the teacher of the Moon Beauty Class, is an elegant and fashionable man who is almost always seen carrying a paper fan in his hand.
• Bleach: Parodied with former Captain Kisuke Urahara, who carries around a carries a hand fan with him, which he occasionally uses to hide his face or make gags, such as doing his own version of Noblewoman's Laugh with a fan pressed to his face. But despite his previous rank, he's hardly regal or classy, so seeing him use a fan in a fancy manner is Played for Laughs and illustrates him as a Bunny-Ears Lawyer.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma, one of the highest-ranking demons, frequently wields a fan to demonstrate his status as an Agent Peacock with a flair for flamboyance.
• Doki Doki! PreCure: Minor villainess Reina Itsusuboshi is an Ojou heiress who wears a fancy dress paired with a fancy hand fan.
• Food Wars!: Erina's mother Mana is introduced while wearing a traditional kimono and fan combo, denoting her status as The Proud Elite.
• Gintama: Peacock Princess Kada has a fan made out of peacock feathers, to illustrate both her high status and her Peacock Girl motif.
• Fujiwara-no-Sai from Hikaru no Go is a nobleman who once served as a Go instructor to the Emperor, and he carries around a paper hand fan as his signature item.
• Played with in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. The only fan seen in the series is a birthday present from the incredibly high-class Kaguya, but she's gifting it to her Love Interest Shirogane, who comes from a working-class background.
• Keijo!!!!!!!!: The classy and snobbish Meiko Ginya dresses in an Elegant Gothic Lolita style, combined with a black fan trimmed with white fur.
• Martian Successor Nadesico: Admiral Sadaki Munetake is a snobbish and pompous man who frequently has a fan in his hand, and makes flamboyant gestures with them while giving out orders.
• Medaka Box: Student Council President Medaka Kurokami acts like she's the most important person in the school and frequently has her own custom folding fan with her, which she makes wild gestures with whenever she's being a Large Ham.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Jessiebelle, James' fiancee, is introduced coquettishly hiding her face behind a fan. She's even shown in flashbacks doing this as a small child. She's a subversion of an Ojou; she's high-class, looks and dresses the part, and is obsessed with "proper" behavior, but her own behavior is anything but proper.
  • Pokémon the Series: Black & White: In "The Clubsplosion Begins!" and "Search for the Clubultimate!", one of the tournament trainers, Gail, is a Proper Lady who keeps a fancy fur-trimmed fan with her the entire time.
• The Rose of Versailles: As the story takes place in 18th century France during the years leading up to the French Revolution, many female characters of noble blood carry fans as accessories to show their status. Marie Antoinette herself frequently carries one, as do the Duchess de Polignac and her daughter Charlotte.
• Stitch!: Yuna's Rich Bitch classmate Penny occasionally holds a purple fan in her hand, to make her look extra pretentious and snobby.
• Tenchi Muyo! GXP: Sissy Villain Seiryo Tennan always carries a hand fan with him, to further denote his flashy and flamboyant personality.

Art

• Lady with Fan (1918) by Gustav Klimt features a beautiful woman with a bared shoulder and an ornate fan covering her breast.
• Miss F (1910) by Ernest Lee Major depicts a young woman garbed in white dress and a gold crown, sitting regally while holding a white fan.
• Ready for the Ball by Sophie Anderson features a lady in an ornate black dress while carrying a white hand fan.

Fan Works

• In The Black Sheep Dog Series, Lucretia of the "most Noble and Ancient House of Black" frequently carries around a silk fan during parties, which she uses to cover her mouth while gossiping with her sister-in-law.

Fairy Tales

• In a series of South Asian fairy tales (mostly from India) called Prince Sobur and variants (Arabic for 'patience'), the heroine is almost always a princess who was banished by some reason or another by her father and now lives alone. Later, her father sends an emissary to his daughter's new palace to ask her what she wants from his journey abroad; she answers 'Sobur' (that is, for the messenger to 'have patience'). The king interprets it as an object and goes to look for it: it is actually the name of a prince (who may be a djnni or a normal human), who gives the king a box with an elegant fan inside. The king returns home and gives his daughter the box with the fan inside. The princess waves it and suddenly the prince is there with her.
  • Kupti and Imani (India).
  • The Fan Prince (India).
  • The Power of Fate (India).

Films — Animated

• Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses: One of Duchess Rowena's lessons for the princesses is how to gracefully flutter a hand fan. Most of them succeed, though Fallon struggles to open her fan, and Courtney flutters hers too hard.
• Kung Fu Panda 3: Mei Mei, the elegant ribbon dancer, always has a fan in her right hand and often makes use of it when flirting with Po.
• Mulan: When Mulan is meeting with the Matchmaker (an Etiquette Nazi who judges a woman's value as a wife), she's asked to recite a final admonition, which she does while pulling a fan and hiding her face, under the pretense of making herself look more regal, but it's actually so the Matchmaker won't notice her reading the final admonition notes scribbled in her arm. It is implied that many young women write notes on the fan itself, as the Matchmaker immediately grabs and inspects it.
• Mulan II: The Emperor's three daughters Mei, Ting-Ting, and Su, are often seen with a fan in their hands to show off that they're Proper Ladies. Ting-Ting seems to especially hold on to hers, as she is the oldest and most mature of them, and during their "I Want" Song, "I Wanna Be Like Other Girls", her younger sisters rip the fan out of her hands when trying to convince her to live a little.
• Sing: The retired artist Nana Noodleman has a garish purple feather fan to go along with her grand old dame of the theater image.

Films — Live-Action

• Bill: Sophisticated Master of Disguise assassin Gabriel Montoya is introduced holding a huge fancy fan.
• Chicago: When Roxie first meets Matron "Mama" Morton after being taken to jail, she has an Imagine Spot of Morton performing "When You're Good To Mama" (the movie uses a Musical World Hypothesis wherein the non-staged numbers are Roxie picturing reality as a nightclub act). Morton's sparkling, low-cut dress is paired with a gigantic feathery fan, which she uses throughout the number as a seductive prop.
• Enola Holmes 2: Enola infiltrates a high-class ball, but finds herself conspicuously standing out because she lacks the trappings of an upper-class lady — a dress in the current fashion, the ability to dance, and a fan with which to subtly and acceptably communicate with men from afar.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Elizabeth Swann has a fancy fan with her when attending Norrington's promotion near the start of the film, which goes along her Pimped-Out Dress to make her look like a Proper Lady. Humorously, she keeps quickly fanning herself as a way to deal with the pain of her tight corset.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Lord Cutler Beckett is shown to have a fan among his possessions in what amount to a shrine to his noble status aboard his flagship Endeavour, which Jack finds and then mockingly preens with it.
• The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement has Clarisse giving Mia princess etiquette lessons on "the art of the fan", in which hand fans are used to elegantly express anger, distaste, or to flirt.
  Clarisse: I'm feeling flirtatious. Come hither. [waves her fan in front of her face while batting her eyelashes]
  • Becomes a funny moment when Mia starts mocking the fan lessons, making faces behind it. Clarisse catches on when her assistant starts giggling.
    Clarisse: Are you sassing your grandma?!
    Mia: [bashful] I would never sass you, Grandma.
    Clarisse: Oh, ho. This is also a way of showing your annoyance. [proceeds to playfully swat Mia with the fan]
• Singin' in the Rain: Lena carries one for her role as a noblewoman in the Show Within a Show The Dueling Cavalier. At one point her character taps Don's on the shoulder with the fan. Unfortunately the sound is so messed up that the sound effect isn't a light tap, it's a solid thunk.
  Heckler at Screening: What are ya hitting 'im with, a blackjack?

Literature

• American Girl has Samantha give out fans as party favors at her upper class tenth birthday party, invoking this trope. Elizabeth, Felicity's upper class friend, also had a fan as part of her accessories.
• Beware of Chicken: High-class ladies typically carry a selection of different fans, with the images on them being used to send messages as a kind of social combat. Guan Chyou is alarmed when she turns up to a negotiation and sees her counterpart's face half covered by a fan bearing the Soaring Phoenix.
  A brazen display, calling on the image of Imperial Majesty. It was practically a declaration of war in the language of the court fans.
• Re:Zero: Priscilla Barielle is an arrogant aristocrat who's always dressed in an opulent black and red dress with a matching folding fan. The only times she doesn't have her fan in hand is when it's stored in her cleavage.
• The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong: Lord Shen Qingqiu is a very elegant man who always carries a fancy green fan with him. When Shen Yuan transmigrated into him, he kept doing it, though he privately thought carrying a fan in such made him look pretentious, not classy.
• Largely thanks to his depiction in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang's signature fan of crane feathers has become a visual shorthand for a brilliant strategist and scholar.

Live-Action TV

• Bridgerton: "Art of the Swoon" sees the Proper Lady Daphne descend a staircase carrying a fluffy white fan. She drops it on purpose and predictably, Prince Charming Friedrich gallantly picks it up and gives it back to her. The courtly scene has the dual purpose of charming the visitors and telling her "suitor" Simon that she has other options.
• Chouriki Sentai Ohranger/Power Rangers Zeo: As a royal Fembot, Empress Hysterrier/Queen Machina frequently carries a metallic collapsible fan with her.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: Ma Gorg often carries a lacy fan, sometimes fluttering it while flirting with Pa, her husband.

Tabletop Games

• Legend of the Five Rings: Geisha and noble characters of both genders are frequently seen holding these in artworks, reflecting the setting being heavily based on Asian mythology. Notable examples include Kakita Jikeru the effeminate jester of the Crane Clan and famous geisha like Akenohoshi and Yoritomo Sachina.

Theatre

• Lady Windermere's Fan is about a group of bluebloods. One of them, the modest and feminine Lady Windermere, receives a beautiful fan as a present from her husband... which becomes an issue when said husband finds it in a room along with a man she was previously considering leaving him for.
• Mrs. Hawking: Nearly every show in the series features elegant balls, meaning that both main characters and extras will carry elaborate fans. Two examples stand out:
  • In Mrs. Hawking, the first play of the series, Mary is tasked with attending a fancy dress ball to get intel on Lord Brockton, a prominent blackmailer. She's thus given a Princess for a Day ensemble that includes a fan, which she's not entirely comfortable with. Mary mostly uses the fan to cover her face while she's trying to come up with a convincing backstory about being wealthy.
  • In Base Instruments, Nathaniel, Clara, and Justin Hawking attend a gala benefit for the visiting Russian ballet. Yulia Sherba, one of the ballerinas, opens her fan in a dramatic wave while passing Justin as a symbol that she's both available and looking; Justin, being a Lovable Sex Maniac, immediately gets the hint.
• Tsukiuta often features these in their dance lives. It overlaps with the use of fans in traditional Japanese (and Chinese) dances, but when Hajime, Six Gravity's "King" and a member of in-universe nobility, uses them, it falls under this as well. In the dance for "Aa, Kami wo Nadete, Hoho wo Nadete, Aishiteyaru" ("Oh, let me caress your hair and your cheeks and love you"), Hajime essentially plays an oiran, and these are used by both him and his backup dancers. "Musubi no Tsuki" is another of Hajime's solos where he shows off his classy elegance with fans.

Video Games

• Custom Robo: Twin sisters Eliza and Isabella are both fancy Ojou who carry gaudy fur-trimmed fans with them. Since they're identical twins who dress the same, one of the few ways to tell them apart is by which hand is holding the fan.
• Darkest Dungeon: In the Crimson Court DLC, The Countess always has a fan in her hand, to give her an air of royalty and she's frequently using it to coyly hide half of her face, which is a visual cue to her hiding her true nature as a Blood Countess / Vampire Monarch. She has it with her even in the boss fight with her Bloodsucker form, only dropping it when she turns into her Bloodlust form.
• Dragalia Lost: Haughty princess Chelle is frequently shown carrying a fancy yellow fan that is decorated with fur. She uses it to cover her mouth when she's plotting something or being manipulative.
• Dynasty Warriors: Downplayed with Xiaoqiao. While she is a highborn woman who is a graceful fighter with her custom Combat Hand Fan she always carries with her, her actual personality is more akin to a Genki Girl and she tends to surprise people with her unladylike attitude.
• Endless Frontier: Princess Suzuka is a "Shiki-Oni" princess from the world of Kagura Amahara who wields Paper Fans of Doom with wires inside them as she commands her combat karakuri "Jyaki-GUN-oh" through puppetry and dancing.
• Fate/Grand Order: Heian noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu uses Combat Hand Fan as her weapon of choice and her third Ascension has her in a traditional multilayered kimono while elegantly holding a huge folding fan in her right hand.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake: Madam M always carries a huge black-and-gold fan that matches her kimono, to give her a sophisticated air. It doesn't take long for Cloud and the player to realize it's mostly for show, as she has quite the unladylike Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • House Thorne, once the ruling dynasty of the oligarchic sultanate of Ul'dah, has a family dance passed down for generations since the time of Princess Edvya. It involves a series of complex movements that incorporates an ornate hand fan that Edvya used to leave onlookers speechless. Her descendant, Aldithya, wishes to subvert this during the 2023 Little Ladies' Day festivities by distributing copies of the fan to those enjoying the holiday, reasoning that it would be what her Rebellious Princess ancestor would have wanted.
  • Tsukuyomi is one of the amatsukami, the highest gods worshiped in the Far Eastern religion. When battled as a primal in Stormblood, she carries an ornate hand fan to strike the players in melee combat and summons copies of the fan that sweep an area in the shape of a full moon. This demonstrates her power, status, and divinity as the Lady of the Moon.
• Ganbare Goemon: Lord Yuki often has a hand fan designed after Japan's flag with him, denoting his status as the feudal ruler of Edo.
• Genshin Impact: Ningguang and Kamisato Ayaka are two high-class girls who wield fans demonstrating their high status, with some differences:
  • Ningguang is one of the heads of Liyue Qixing (lit. "Seven Stars of Liyue"), a high financial council that rules the region of Liyue, being the richest person in this region and even owning her own Ominous Floating Castle (the "Jade Chamber"). Ningguang is seen using a fan in various of her cinematics in the game.
  • Kamisato Ayaka is a Proper Lady that comes from Kamisato Clan, one of the wealthiest noble families from Inazuma and even being in charge of one of the three commissions that rule Inazuma, the Yashiro Commission. Different from Ningguang, Ayaka uses her fan not just in cinematics, but in some of her moves in-game, especially her Elemental Burst.
• Imperium Nova has Misako Houraisan, the Queen of the Lunarians, who often keep her face hidden by hiding behind a veil, curtains, or a hand fan.
• Miitopia: The Princess class's Weapon Specialization is fans. The "fans" that the Princess can use range from actual fans to a protractor, a wad of cash, and slices of pizza.
• Mortal Kombat: Kitana is a princess of Edenia and is notably one of their most graceful and ladylike characters there, which is illustrated by the fact she's Lady of War who wields a steel Combat Hand Fan. And despite being primarily used for battle her fans are still exotically decorated and garnished and she occasionally does graceful poses with them, especially in artwork.
• Onmyōji (2016): Protagonist Abe no Seimei is a sophisticated Long-Haired Pretty Boy who carries a large fan with him, which he often uses to make flamboyant gestures with it while casting magic. He has different ones depending on his skin as well. His Evil Counterpart Kuro Seimei also uses fans in a similar fashion.
• Overwatch:
  • Widowmaker (who used to be a french noblewoman named Amélie Guillard before she got Reforged into a Minion) is shown with fancy hand fans in some of her cosmetics, as a nod to her past life: The emote "Fan Tricks" where she does various graceful movements with a hand fan before assuming a Contrapposto Pose while covering her face with it, and her Victory Pose "Fans" which has her doing a flirtatious pose with a fan in each hand.
  • One of Echo's Lunar New Year highlight intros, most of which emphasize her grace and lady-like poise, has her posing with a pair of fans and giving a coy look.
• Paper Mario 64: Lady Bow, a high-class Boo that lives in Boo's Mansion, always carries around a fluff-tipped fan. Upon being upgraded to Ultra Rank, she learns an attack called "Fan Smack", in which she beats enemies with her fan to make them dizzy.
• Persona:
  • Persona 3: Bebe is the only member of the fashion club and is always carrying around a custom black hand fan in his hand, as a nod not only to his pompous personality but his love for Japanese culture.
  • Persona 4: Downplayed with Yukiko. She is an Ojou, the sole heiress of the traditional and wealthy Amagi family, and is associated with folding hand fans, featured with them often in official artwork and having a Combat Hand Fan being her weapon in the shadow world, but she doesn't carry them around with her daily file.
  • Persona 5: Haru's persona Milady is based on the fictional French noblewoman and Femme Fatale Milady de Winter, and she has Victorian-style design and style, complete with a fancy fur-trimmed fan that she always holds in one of her hands.
• Ridgeside Village: Faye can be frequently seen waving herself with a fan in her idle animation, which hints at her wealthy upbringing.
• Shadow Fight 2: Widow is a sophisticated Geisha-styled Dragon Lady whose portrait has her holding her custom war fans in each hand. Aside from making her look more regal, they're also her weapon of choice.
• Soul Series: In Soulcalibur III, each weapon type exclusive to custom characters is matched with a sample "bonus character", most of those being Non-Player Characters from the "Chronicles of the Sword" gaiden story mode. One of them, the designated sample character for the Steel Fan weapon type, is Demuth, the gluttonous king of Maletta.

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: Downplayed. Hiyoko Saionji, The "Ultimate Traditional Dancer", does dress in a sophisticated manner and uses a fan skillfully when being a dancer, which is shown prominently in her promotional artwork, but she doesn't carry a fan casually with her when not doing her dances and her personality is very far from being a Proper Lady, as she acts more like a Bratty Half-Pint.

Webcomics

• Darken: In high society and in combat, the Black Widow duchess Jill D'Avron always wears elegant gowns and carries a hand fan. The fans also happen to be quite deadly.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "City Of Walls & Secrets", when Toph and Katara dress up as Earth Kingdom noblewomen to infiltrate the Earth King's party, they both also have matching green fans. Toph notably seems to know how to hold them, likely due to her background as an Earth Kingdom noble.
• Garth And Bev: In the episode about the advent of the toilet, the Queen is seen walking up to use said toilet and carrying a fan.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • The tool of the Peacock Miraculous is a peacock-themed hand fan, and whoever uses it to transform both gains it as a Combat Hand Fan and gets a fancy outfit to go with it and start to act in a more flamboyant manner too, seemingly started posing with the fan on instinct. Notably, most people who ended up getting their hands on it are high-class people, such as Gabriel Agreste, Nathalie Sancoeur, and Félix Fathom.
  • Cash is a classy Villain in a White Suit who always carries with him a matching white fan. His Akumatized form turns said fan into a Combat Hand Fan.
• Sofia the First: Princess Amber is frequently seen holding a red fan, to illustrate her as a Proper Lady who values decorum and proper etiquette.

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