Bamboo fan weaving craft in Chien Hamlet

The bamboo fan weaving craft in Chien Hamlet has existed for more than 100 years. Fans are woven all year round, especially after the harvest, when people weave even more because they have leisure time. Today, the weavers are mainly elderly people and middle-aged people (both men and women); children also help because they do not have stable jobs and choose fan weaving to earn extra income.

This is a very easy craft to learn, so there are not many outstanding skills or techniques:

- Material selection: The bamboo used for weaving fans must be chosen from mature but not overly old or too young bamboo tubes. If too old, the product will be rough, hard, and not flexible or durable in use. If too young, the fan will become warped and shrink, forming holes on the product that look very bad.

- Skill in splitting splints: The splints must be of moderate thickness, about 0.1–0.2 mm, neither too thin nor too thick so that the finished fan is flexible and durable; the width of the fan splints should also be moderate, 2–3 mm. When shaving the splints, they must be shaved flat

and smooth so that the splints are even, look smooth, glossy, supple and durable, etc.

- The knife used to shave the splints must be a thin-bladed knife that is very sharp so that the splints are flat and beautiful. The splints must be shaved smoothly, with no remaining fringes or roughness.

- When weaving fans, make sure the splints are woven tightly together, without creating holes on the fan body.

- Weaving technique: weave in a Z-shape pattern: at the beginning, pass the splint from right to left according to the process: break - bend - weave - start - trim - bend the blade. When one row is finished, repeat the same operations from left to right following the same process. On the last weaving turn, the splint must be secured tightly so that the fan does not come undone and no splint ends are exposed.

Currently, the bamboo fan weaving craft in Chien Hamlet is at risk of fading away. Only a few elderly people and older adults know the craft. The younger generation has no demand to learn the craft because income from bamboo fan weaving is not high.