Original link: https://taiwan.chtsai.org/2023/06/13/zhishu_de_xiangchou/
“When I was young, printing was my daily life, and digital was only in the information exhibition. When I grew up, digital was my life, and printing entered the museum.” This is what I wrote down when I visited the Taiwan Printing Museum three years ago.
Words are visual symbols invented by humans to record spoken language. Since it is an invention, the medium of writing and the length of the text will definitely change with the times and technological progress. Since it is a symbol, it does not have to be bound to a specific medium.
Since the invention of writing five thousand years ago, it has always been the best medium at that time to write on whatever it is. It was very late that writing or printing on paper began, and the period of mass printing of books by machine was even briefer. Paper books will only be a transitional stage after all.
I read a lot. Even when I watch a movie, I go to the library to borrow related books and come back to watch it. As far as personal preference is concerned, reading paper books is indeed more comfortable. Most of the books I read are still paper books.
But paper books encounter a big problem in this era: the lack of sustainability in both production and consumption. Therefore, I do not insist on paper and printing as the medium of long texts such as “books”. A book of 100,000 words, whether it is printed on paper or not, is a book of 100,000 words. The text and the medium should be considered separately.
This is also the main reason why I try to borrow books from public libraries instead of buying them. It’s the same as my choice of public transportation and my choice not to order food delivery. Of course, we still need to read, move, and eat, but in a more sustainable way.
As for paper and printing, is it possible that, like earlier media (clay tablets, tortoise shells, bamboo slips, silk…) they will exit in the near future? My personal expectation is that it will. But no one can tell the future.
Finally back to the Taiwan Printing Discovery Museum. I also quite like this museum. The task of the printing factory of the Ministry of Finance is to print invoices, and the natural conditions of the factory are good. The professionalism and sense of life of the tourist factory are also well balanced.
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