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If you go to Japan, check out a place called Tokyu Hands.. tons of paper notebooks, pens, pencils, pencil organizer pouches, tons of awesome stuff..
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Japan had interesting art and culture before their modern political system, which largely stems from post WWII. Btw, there's a reasonable argument to be made that constraints are what drives creativity. From my own experience, East Germany had much better political jokes than West Germany. Mostly because you didn't need a carefully worded joke in the West, you could just open a newspaper. Compare also https://en.wiki…
I agree constraints can generate creativity, but is there evidence that constraints generate more of it? It seems like no. This is all difficult to quantify, but if I were to attempt to paraphrase history and try to quantify anyway, at least from a Western perspective, it seems like the cultural output of free "Westernized" countries vastly exceeds those from restricted places (Russia, China, etc), or it could simply…
You seem to be throwing together all of pre-PRC China into one big blender?
There have been lots of different dynasties and long stretches when China was not unified. Many of these dynasties were more different from each other, than some dynasties might be from the PRC 'dynasty'.
Tossing all the achievements of thousands of years into one bin, and comparing them to what has been produced in the last few decades also seems a bit off.
Most (or all?) of the examples of inventions you describe predate the Qing dynasty.
The last emperors before the republic and later the communists were off the Qing dynasty.
China was perhaps at its biggest sophistication compared to the rest of the world during the precocious Song dynasty. See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_dynasty#Economy
Song China was arguably the first 'modern' country in the world. Where 'modern' is used in the historian's sense of the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history#Modern_history
I have no affiliation with jetpens - but if you are into pens at all, buy one of their sampler packs. It's a great way to try out different styles of pens that you won't find at Staples or Walgreens (or the office supply closet).
pens that you won't find at Staples or Walgreens (or the office supply closet) You'll still have to hit up the office supply closet or one of those other places for "decoy pens." You leave the decoy pens in a cup on top of your desk, while you keep the good stuff inside a drawer. That way your officemates and/or partner and/or housemates borrow (steal) the decoy pens and not the good stuff.
Then I moved back to metropolitan France and all the teacher and kids where looking at me like an alien when I was picking all my stuff up before coming to the board ...
Disclaimer: I work there.
I have been using Midori MD notebooks for quite some time, I really like their format and paper. I recently purchased a pack containing a Kunisawa notebook, it's so nice and well made that I'm sad to start writing in it, I'm waiting to start a project or idea for something interesting enough to release it. That said I also think that there are many things coming from Japan that are incredibly overpriced just for the…
> the prices they reach when they arrive in Europe are sometimes even in bad taste You can always import products yourself using a shipping forwarder like Tenso [0] or a purchase assistance service like Buyee [1]. [0]: https://www.tenso.com/en [1]: https://buyee.jp/
I have no affiliation with jetpens - but if you are into pens at all, buy one of their sampler packs. It's a great way to try out different styles of pens that you won't find at Staples or Walgreens (or the office supply closet).
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To be fair, my last apartment in NYC was like that. Convenient trashcan right in the mailbox room. Though I suppose my mailbox didn't literally get filled daily. If that's the case in Japan, that's pretty bad.
This drives me crazy. Greater than 90% of our mail is junk mail and goes straight into the recycling bin. I was watching some recycling process videos the other day, and when it came to bailing up the sorted paper, it looked like it was basically all junk mailers. We literally have systems that supply time and money to design the mailers, supply ink and paper and probably some plastic to make them, mail them, pass th…
It works really well (it has existed for decades), and many municipalities are now moving towards making this 'no sticker' the default! This means that if you want flyers, you have to put up a 'yes sticker' instead of having none, and without a sticker you won't get any. This opt-in approach has quite an impact on the amount of useless paper pushed around.
It's fun, until you live there, and find yourself forever filling out tens of useless forms and workout that pretty much everything requires a form, whether or not it makes sense. Don't get me wrong, I think the art work, Kanji and calligraphy is awesome, there are many amazing things about the 'paper culture' but, there are many drawbacks, especially in 2021 when the rest of the world has gone digital in so many are…
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This drives me crazy. Greater than 90% of our mail is junk mail and goes straight into the recycling bin. I was watching some recycling process videos the other day, and when it came to bailing up the sorted paper, it looked like it was basically all junk mailers. We literally have systems that supply time and money to design the mailers, supply ink and paper and probably some plastic to make them, mail them, pass th…
In the Netherlands we have stickers you can stick on your letter box that stop 99% of unaddressed spam from being put in. The sender can get into trouble with the regulator if they don't adhere to this system. It works really well (it has existed for decades), and many municipalities are now moving towards making this 'no sticker' the default! This means that if you want flyers, you have to put up a 'yes sticker' ins…
We don't have that in the US since it's part of the business model of the postal office or USPS to deliver ads in your mail box.