(shān): to fan, to slap sb on the face, fan

(shān) is a Chinese character meaning “to fan.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1966 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a feathered 羽 fan in the shape of a folding door 户. Its radical form (door) appears in many related characters such as (fáng, house), (suǒ, actually), (, a household).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to fan
  2. to slap sb on the face
  3. fan

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA feathered 羽 fan in the shape of a folding door 户

Decomposition: ⿸户羽 (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounshàn zifan5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fēng shànelectric fan
shàn bèiscallop (genus Pecten)
shān dòngto fan
diàn fēng shànelectric fan
diàn shànelectric fan
shàn xíngcircular sector
diào shàna ceiling fan
zhé shànfolding fan
pú shànpalm-leaf fan
yǐn dǎo shàn qūboot sector
luò dì shànpedestal fan
liù shàn ménseat of the government
wú yè fēng shànbladeless fan
pái qì shànexhaust fan
jīn tóu shàn wěi yīng(bird species of China) golden-headed cisticola (Cisticola exilis)
43
Total compounds
26
As first character
53
As last character
21
As middle character

appears in 43 compound words: 26 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 21 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

guō
0.5431,620 co-occurrences
chuāng
0.5274,514 co-occurrences
chì
0.4361,110 co-occurrences
fēng
0.4284,706 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.424498 co-occurrences
xíng
0.4218,886 co-occurrences
mén
0.4215,491 co-occurrences
xiā
0.404210 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.39096 co-occurrences
0.3871,566 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

shān fēng ěr duoHSK 5+

protruding ears

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

夏天没有空调,只能用风降温。

Xiàtiān méiyǒu kōngtiáo, zhǐ néng yòng shànzi shān fēng jiàngwēn.

Without air conditioning in summer, we can only use fans to cool down.

SmzdmMar 2026

M4 MacBook Air无风设计:是静默之美还是性能短板?全网观点大...

M 4 M a c B o o k A i r wú fēng shān shè jì : shì jìng mò zhī měi hái shì xìng néng duǎn bǎn ? quán wǎng guàn diǎn dà . . .

ZaobaoMar 2026

加装排气穿体育服上课等 热浪中学校多举措助师生降...

jiā zhuāng pái qì shān chuān tǐ yù fú shàng kè děng rè làng zhōng xué jiào duō jǔ cuò zhù shī shēng jiàng . . .

Installing exhaust fans, wearing gym clothes to class, and more: Schools in the heatwave region are taking various measures to help students and teachers beat the heat...

Cool3cMar 2026

梅雨季超前部署!DREO 静音循环立,搞定空气对流,打造干爽会呼吸的家。

méi yǔ jì chāo qián bù shǔ ! D R E O jìng yīn xún huán lì shān , gǎo dìng kōng qì duì liú , dǎ zào gān shuǎng huì hū xī de jiā .

Get a head start on the rainy season! The DREO Quiet Circulating Fan promotes air circulation and creates a dry, breathable home.

百度新闻Feb 2026

「新春走基层」他们不是不恋家,只是西沙这“南天门..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng tā men bù shì bù liàn jiā , zhī shì xī shā zhè shān nán tiān mén . .

New Year's Journey to the grassroots level" It's not that they don't love their home, but the "Southern Heavenly Gate" of Xisha...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春晚这“窗”,照见中国机器人产业“跑”出倍速

chūn wǎn zhè shān chuāng , zhào jiàn zhōng guó jī qì rén chǎn yè pǎo chū bèi sù

Spring Festival Gala this "window", see China's robotics industry "run" out of times speed

Tatoeba

火势以形迅速蔓延。

Huǒshì yǐ shànxíng xùnsùmànyán.

The fire spread out in a fan-shape.

Tatoeba

汤姆故意弄碎了那窗户。

Tāngmǔ gùyì nòngsuì le nà shān chuānghu.

Tom broke the window on purpose.

Tatoeba

请您把那窗户关起来好吗?

Qǐng nín bǎ nà shān chuānghu guān qǐlai hǎo ma?

Can you please close that window?

Tatoeba

你有这门的钥匙吗?

Nǐ yǒu zhè shān mén de yàoshi ma?

Do you have the key to this door?

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the door radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced shān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 扇 (shān) mean in Chinese?
扇 (shān) primarily means "to fan." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1966 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 扇 have?
扇 is written with 10 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 扇?
The radical associated with 扇 is 户 (door). This radical appears in many characters related to door.
What are the components of 扇?
扇 is composed of: 户 (structural), 羽 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸户羽 with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 扇?
Common words with 扇 include: 风扇 (fēng shàn, "electric fan"); 扇子 (shàn zi, "fan"); 扇贝 (shàn bèi, "scallop (genus Pecten)"); 扇动 (shān dòng, "to fan"); 电风扇 (diàn fēng shàn, "electric fan"). There are over 43 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 扇 (shān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shān: 山 (mountain), 删 (to delete), 衫 (shirt), 煽 (to fan into a flame), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 扇 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 扇 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.