折纸 (zhézhǐ): origami

Meanings

1 origami
2 paper folding (the craft)
3 to fold paper

Characters

折

Examples

她从小就喜欢折纸。

Tā cóng xiǎo jiù xǐhuān zhézhǐ.

She has loved origami since childhood.

他用一张纸折出了一只栩栩如生的千纸鹤。

Tā yòng yì zhāng zhǐ zhé chū le yì zhī xǔxǔrúshēng de qiānzhǐhè.

He folded a lifelike paper crane from a single sheet.

Tips

culture

Although the art form is most famously associated with Japan (Japanese 折り紙 origami), paper folding originated in China alongside the invention of paper itself. The Japanese 千羽鶴 (one thousand cranes) tradition has been adopted in Chinese as 千纸鹤 (qiānzhǐhè).

memory

折 (zhé, to fold) + 纸 (zhǐ, paper) = “fold-paper.” The 折 is read zhé here; same character read shé means “to break,” and zhē means “to flip over.”