> On Jun 6, 2024, at 1:13 PM, Tung Ken Lam via Origami > <origami@lists.digitalorigami.com> wrote: > > Publishers want me to use the word "Origami" in book titles for marketing > purposes. I don't mind as it's a loan word. I once tried to persuade a > marketing agency to avoid the term "<insert nationality here> Origami". I > compared it with "British Cuisine" -- acceptable to some, but not to others. > Some people even refuse to use the French word "Menu" and insist on the > English "Bill of Fare" instead (Mrs Beeton, I think).
The example of cooking is interesting. Culturally, we can talk about French, Korean, or Japanese cuisine. But cooking, as a human practice, is universal (each country or region having its own style). However, what seems very clear and obvious in the examples of cooking (or music, or painting) does not seem so clear when we think of origami, because we are "imprinted" to believe it is a Japanese art. Simplistic slogans are dangerous because history is not a straight line. History is much more interesting than a straight line, but it requires effort if we want to understand the forces that made things happen. In the field of origami, I believe we are just beginning, and it would be beneficial if more people became interested in exploring this fascinating world. This exploration demands not only reading specific documents but also thinking outside the box and searching in unexpected places (such as the example of the famous box of Catherine de Clèves, found in a prayer book from 1440 -that is, the Renaissance). Laura
