The feather duster returns! Sort of....

[ajk]

I don't know if anybody remembers this...but when Dae Joyoung was airing in 2007 we had some discussion here about a strange object that the Tang general was carrying around all the time. It was a very short staff with feathers sticking out of one end. It looked sort of like a feather duster. None of us could figure out what the thing was or what purpose it served. I tried researching it myself, but no luck, and even asked on a Chinese history forum but nobody there was sure either. It was a real puzzler and we never did solve it.

Well now look what Commissioner Park has been carrying around lately:





Same sort of deal! But I'm guessing those are horsehairs at the end of his (it would make sense, for the Yuan).

The fact that it's appeared in two shows suggests there's some sort of historical reality to it--not likely that it would be completely conjured up from scratch twice. Anybody have any ideas about it?

[TheBo]

It looked like a flywhisk, which you see sometimes in Egyptian carvings/paintings, so I googled it and Wikipedia says they are still used in Africa by shopkeepers, while fancy ones are carried by some nobility there.

This image is entitled, President Carter holds a traditional horsehair staff and wears a special Ethiopian garment...

So I tried, "staff with horsehair, Chinese" and I got some images like this: a horsehair whip.

In fact, when I tried "horsehair whisk, China," I was even more well-rewarded. It seems they are still being made today.

After reading this and looking at these images, I conclude that this is a super-de-duper, high-end fly swatter, something that would have been carried by someone instead of a fan because it looks so awesome. It is Chinese, which may be why you couldn't find anything--you were looking for Goryeo stuff or summat, right? What do you think?

[soapygrams]

I don't think it would be very effective as a fly swatter BUT it would probably well as a fly mover LOL You know how flies see the much smaller fly swatters coming way before you can smack 'em... the long horse hair would alert the fky and it would no doubt escape injury/// aa rolled up newspaper or magazine works much better but sure is a far cry from fancy LOL

[TheBo]

Well, if I was carrying something around with me and it was decorative, I don't think I'd like it smushed all over with dead beasties. LOL. I think swishing them away would work just fine for me.

[ajk]

Thanks, Bo--this is an interesting new angle. It's possible that the fancy thing these guys carry evolved from something functional earlier on. Certainly a good lead; I'll keep my eyes open for more.