In the prehistory of mobile devices, the hand-fan plays a crucial role. Extending well beyond use as an air-conditioning tool, the hand-fan has evolved across centuries and cultures to become a portable screen, a game console, an artistic medium, and an elaborate communication device. Drawing on the scholarly, literary, and art history of hand-fans in North Asian and European contexts, this paper excavates a deep history of hand-fans and connects them to contemporary mobile communication devices. This research develops two key aspects of the hand-fan as a communicative apparatus: first, the fan as an optical image surface to store and transmit information, constituting the earliest portable screen, and second, the fan as a haptic and gestural object from which distinct vernaculars arise. This paper maps a radical new trajectory in how we conceptualise the hand-fan in history and the mobile phone in the present.

中文翻译：

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Fanology：移动设备史前的手扇

在移动设备的史前史中，手扇起着至关重要的作用。手扇远远超出了作为空调工具的使用范围，它已经跨越几个世纪和文化发展成为便携式屏幕、游戏机、艺术媒介和精致的通信设备。本文借鉴北亚和欧洲背景下手扇的学术、文学和艺术史，挖掘手扇的深厚历史，并将其与当代移动通信设备联系起来。这项研究开发了手扇作为通信设备的两个关键方面：第一，风扇作为存储和传输信息的光学图像表面，构成最早的便携式屏幕；第二，风扇作为触觉和手势对象。出现了不同的方言。