The fan in Tai Chi is a really good exercise to do. It's called a Phoenix fan, and another exercise with a weapon is the Yin Yang sword. The fan was the man's weapon, the slats on a fan are metal and at the end of each of the slats was a spike; and the Chinese used to hold the fan in their hand and hide it up their sleeve, and if they had to use it they would whip out the fan and jab [FX], and that's why it's called a weapon. [FX]
			The sword was the ladies' weapon, believe it or not, and the one I have just is a wooden practice sword, but the metal swords are beautiful and beautifully embossed and different colours on the handles, and they're really attractive pieces, but they were used by the women - quite heavy, the metal swords, quite heavy to handle, but very effective.