Onions, tangerines and mugwort are not what usually comes to mind when one thinks about making paper, but they are among the many ingredients that visitors can experiment with at Taipei’s Suho Paper Memorial Museum (樹火紀念紙博物館), which hosts regular workshops to let people see paper as more than just something used to write or draw on.
These ingredients are among the stars of this year’s “Paper Seasoning” workshops, where participants use various edible materials in the papermaking process. The material is chosen according to both seasonal and cultural factors — Saturday’s class will feature tangerines because they are in season, while mugwort is the ingredient for June due to Dragon Boat Festival, when the herb is hung over doors to ward off evil spirits.
Museum education planner Suzi Hsu (許書慈) says that one can often gain more out of making something than simply using it as a tool.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
“We are used to simply purchasing paper as an end product, but we don’t understand the value of it,” she says. “Paper can also be perceptual and conceptual.”
Hsu used lots of paper as a former art student, but she never saw it as more than just a canvas for her creations. Now she appreciates the beauty of paper — down to the tiniest fiber.
“Most people see paper as a surface,” she says. “But when you rip a piece of paper apart, you will see the individual fibers. That’s the smallest, most captivating unit.”
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
She adds that even though these fibers bond together strongly, they are quite tolerant to additional materials. For example, while not fibrous enough to make paper alone, tangerine pulp, peels and leaves can be added to the paper mix to form different textures and patterns, and even aroma and color.
“We don’t want everyone to make the same piece of paper,” Hsu says. “We’ll teach techniques that allow a certain degree of flexibility, so the end product is more like a small painting.”
GOING LOCAL
Photo courtesy of Suho Paper Memorial Museum
The museum has also placed a focus on local products this year. April and May’s workshops will focus on wheat, a crop that has experienced a revival in the past few years.
Hsu says they have made paper with wheat grains and mash received from breweries, and they are looking at even more applications for the upcoming workshops.
While the Paper Seasoning workshop is suitable for all ages, Hsu says they also hold classes that are geared toward different groups — such as an interactive “Yoga Art for Parent and Child” class and also a more introspective tea and calligraphy session for adults, where the main goal is to relax the mind. There will also be a fan dyeing session in the summer.
Aside from the workshops, regular visitors can purchase an activity package (NT$200) where they can experience silk screening, ink rubbing and crafting a notebook from selected papers (including ones made from pineapple leaves). For an additional NT$80, they can make their own paper.
The museum’s regular exhibit takes visitors through the history of papermaking and its many appearances and applications — from audio speakers to electric insulation to cleaning up after using the toilet. The special exhibit, which runs through June 3, is Blank Texture, consisting of a space created with five different types of white paper. Visitors are encouraged to leave their phones behind and look within. Pamphlets that profess to teach calmness, known as “Meditation Guides,” are also provided as part of the exhibit.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50