Valentine One: Folding Screens

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Folding Screens

Screens date back to China during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty period (771-256 BCE).[1][2] These were initially one-panel screens in contrast to folding screens.[3] Folding screens were invented during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE).[4] Depictions of those folding screens have been found in Han Dynasty era tombs, such as one in Zhucheng, Shandong Province.[1] A folding screen was often decorated with beautiful art, major themes included mythology, scenes of palace life, and nature. It is often associated with intrigue and romance in the literature of China as, for example, a young lady in love could take a curious peek hidden from behind a folding screen.[1][2] An example of such a thematic occurrence of the folding screen would be in the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin