Context:

The interviewee attended the same elementary school as me. She is currently in her early 20s and studying in college in China. The events she describes took place during her elementary school years, in a typical Chinese classroom setting with approximately 40–50 students per homeroom.

Text:

“So it became a trend, a fashion, really,” the informant said.

The informant recalls that back in elementary school, she learned how to fold a simple paper fan using homework paper without any glue or scissors, so students could basically fold it whenever they wanted (especially during class). At one point, everyone in the classroom was trying to make their own paper fan.

The trend eventually got stopped by the teachers because they noticed students getting distracted in class from making paper fans. Some paper fans were confiscated, and students stopped making them. The trend ended quickly—within a week, like many school trends do.

Analysis:

This account reflects how small, improvised practices among children can rapidly develop into collective trends within a tightly structured environment like a Chinese public school classroom. The paper fan activity demonstrates how shared constraints (limited materials, classroom setting, and boredom) can encourage creative folk practices that spread quickly through the imitation. At the same time, the teacher’s intervention highlights the role of institutional authority in regulating informal student folk culture.