Question

short summary of print culture and the mordern world

Answer 1

The earliest print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea. From 594 AD onwards, books were printed in China by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks. The traditional Chinese ‘Accordion Book’ was folded and stitched at the side because both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed.

For a very long time, the imperial state of China was the major producer of printed material. The Chinese bureaucratic system recruited its personnel through civil services examinations. The imperial state sponsored the large scale printing of textbooks for this examination. The number of candidates for the examinations increased from the sixteenth century, and this increased the volume of print.