Living and working overseas reveals as much about home as it does about the place where one is. A person is always seeking some aspect of home and usually discovers plenty of new treasures that are almost, but not quite, like the same things at home. Paper is one such product that colors our view of the world.
When the first books were being printed in the Western world, notably England, the company that printed the book sold the book. Paper was formed based on the needs and familiar patterns of everyday things. Until the late 17th century, England did not make paper, yet it rapidly became the hub of a printing industry that still calls London home. English publishers imported paper.
Early papers were made with the final lives of fabrics. After being torn and torn again, the cloth would descend into small pieces of fluff. Wetted, mixed with some binders, and dried on frames, the early papers were the final resting place of cloth fibers. Work continues to this day to expand the number of plant fibers that now make up most papers. Today, with a few ounces of tree pieces and some simple chemicals, a paper maker can create lots of products. Further refinement and processing allows us to have all sorts of materials which make daily life easier.
The United States is adept at making paper from such efforts. At this time of year, it is easy to see stacks and stacks of paper. Every school kid dreads the paper shopping that heralds the end of summer. Ruled sheets fill the nightmare spaces of the mind for a student contemplating a long year ahead.
Those white ruled sheets are soon filled with math homework, English papers, class notes and the occasional paper airplane folds. Many of those sheets will bleed red after marking and many students will wish for the papers to have all the answers to yet another surprise test handed out.
Elsewhere in the world, paper is more precious and rare. Chinese students use paper. They use notebooks and notepads just like their counterparts here, but the shape is different. More often each sheet already has some notes or marks, unlike the clean and crisp sheets students use here. Chinese students use square paper in school. Characters are based on a square form and thus the basic paper shape is square. For a foreign teacher, it can be a bit of a chore to find anything that looks like the rectangular paper we are accustomed to. Often students spend some of their preparation time on drawing the lines for characters in their own language.
Many notebooks have two anchor points in binders instead of three. Papers will be covered with cutesy characters and inspiring sayings in English. At times the variety of papers looks more like a photo session from a toy store than a place for the organization of thoughts and pictures to be handed in. Yes, students use paper, and yes, they do turn in assignments, but the shape, size, and types of paper vary from classroom to classroom.
Best to see what unfolds from a piece of paper. Curiosity curls the sheet that holds the idea.
Orpheus Allison is a photojournalist living in The County who graduated from UMPI and earned a master of liberal arts degree from the University of North Carolina. He began his journalism career at WAGM television later working in many different areas of the US. After 20 years of television he changed careers and taught in China and Korea.
