The designs and purposes of fans in China have been evolving for around 3,000 years. Excavations at Mashan in the Hubei region of China in 1982 uncovered a bamboo fan that dated from the 5th century BCE, demonstrating the long relationship between the Chinese and the use of fans. Fans began as purely functional tools for keeping asunlight, but have since come to be created and exported as artistic works and objects of cultural significance in their own right.
