Translating Ken Liu’s short story The Paper Menagerie into a non-linear and experiential format
Book & Experiential Design Fall 2025
Overseen by Amy Auman
Introduction
Between the Folds translates Ken Liu's short story The Paper Menagerie into a non-linear and experiential format. A 360º rod-and-stitch-bound book, an origami tiger, and a hinged box to hold it all were designed to move through the same emotional arc as the story itself: identity, hatred, loss, regret, and the eventual reconciliation.
The story follows Jack, a half-Chinese, half-American boy who rejects his immigrant mother and her origami animals out of shame, only to find her final letter folded inside his origami tiger after she dies. As an Asian-American who spent years at a difficult distance from my own heritage, I knew that I wanted to create a piece that would allow viewers to experience the range of emotions throughout the short story. The goal with this project was to showcase the permanence of a mother's love through the son's hatred towards his identity.
The Design
Each spread is a conversation between mother and son. The mother's voice runs as a constant throughout while the son moves through five emotional states that structure the book's sections: Identity (grey), Hatred (red), Loss (blue), Regret (green), Love (orange). Color becomes the architecture for the system. Within each section, pull quotes from the story carry the emotional weight with a distinction between mother and son along with translated phrases to heighten the emotional weight.
As the book goes through the emotional arc of the boy, there are both small and large graphics that are illustrating the process for folding the tiger—by the time that the tension between mother and son is resolved, the tiger becomes fully formed. The section openers are a moment of interactivity, allowing the viewers to physically fold the tiger in a similar manner and complete a phrase while indicating a new emotion.
Top view and section openers
Sample spreads from various sections The Tiger
Because the tiger was such an integral part to the story, I knew that I had to do it justice. Over the course of four weeks, I folded about fifteen tigers, with each iteration slowly morphing from bull to monkey to finally a tiger. I followed this tutorial, but made my own modifications to better capture the tiger's curves and features.