Paper Child is what?
Let's see...
Paper Children are paper cut-out models of anime
characters that are staged in such a way that they appear to be
interacting with the surrounding real-life objects. One of the most
common forms this takes is a real life hand holding a drawing up as if
they were being lifted by their shirt.
How it started
Photographing paper cut-out models and sharing them online began on the Korean web in early June 2004 when web illustrator Ciba
uploaded pictures of her hand-drawn paper models in a blog post on the
portal site Daum. Titled “Paper Child” the images quickly spread through
blogs and bulletin boards, spawning numerous derivative images that
were hosted by Ciba’s blog. The Internet phenomenon also received media
coverage and the illustrator was interviewed by the Korean newspaper
Donga Daily
on June 19th and TV show
Marvelous World on July 20th, 2004.
And then...
The earliest known instance of Paper Child to circulate on the English-speaking web can be found in a
DeviantART posted on December 16th, 2006. The DeviantART group “Paper Children”
was formed on January 25th, 2008 and a notable series of Paper Child
artworks were uploaded by DeviantART user Pimmy on April 27th, 2008.
Throughout the year, the origami phenomenon quickly spread via English
imageboards including 4chan, spawning hundreds of photographs depicting
paper cutout models alongside real life objects. The meme was covered by
Moe fan blog MoeSide on July 27th, 2008.
In June 2009, a website showcasing examples of these paper dolls called Paper Child
was started. Multiple Deviantart groups have been set devoted to them, the most popular of which, Paper Children, has just under 1000 watchers.
source knowyourmeme.com
