2026年8月23日 / 美国东部时间上午9:45 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
从6岁起，罗伯特·朗就用纸张折叠出了自己的人生。如今65岁的他，被全球公认为当代折纸大师之一，设计了800多款折纸作品。
当被问及是否习惯成为“折纸摇滚明星”时，朗回答道：“是啊，我想我做这行已经够久了，早就习惯了。”
折纸起源于三个多世纪前的日本，而朗在20世纪90年代引领了折纸艺术的复兴。
2007年，他曾在自己位于加利福尼亚州的家中向《周日早间》节目展示了一些最引以为傲的折纸造型。彼时，这位曾为美国国家航空航天局设计激光器的物理学家，已经将折纸作为全职职业，将数学与艺术结合，创造出一个个奇迹。
观看2007年的报道：折纸艺术家罗伯特·朗（YouTube视频）
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCE8IiuvWU
来源：2007年折纸艺术家罗伯特·朗，哥伦比亚广播公司《周日早间》节目YouTube频道
这份奇迹如今依然存在吗？“当然，”他说，“创造出看似不可能的东西，然后将它变为现实。”
但2025年初，意想不到的事情发生了：加州阿尔塔迪纳遭遇伊顿山火。朗与妻子黛安共同的家，以及这间用纸张搭建起的工作室，都被大火吞噬。
他回忆道，当自己拍下工作室陷入火海的画面时，便意识到人生将彻底改变。
消失的还有数百件作品，每一件都耗费了数百小时的心血。“说‘我失去了所有虫子’听起来很奇怪，但我最爱的那些昆虫和节肢动物，其中一些造型最为复杂，折叠难度极高，都没了，”朗说道。
1987年创作的折纸布谷鸟钟，是他唯一幸存的成品折纸作品。“我原本为人生下一阶段规划的一切，都要彻底推翻重来，”他说，“要是当时多留些时间，或者早点给自己留出时间，我本可以多把些作品塞进车里的。”
其中就包括他珍藏的锦鲤折纸。这些作品在五年间于15家博物馆展出，刚从丹麦的一场展览返程后，就葬身火海。
这些锦鲤所用的纸张，是马萨诸塞州黑弗里尔市Origamido工作室的理查德·亚历山大与迈克尔·拉福塞手工制作的。能让他们定制纸张，就好比请到安东尼奥·斯特拉迪瓦里来制作小提琴。因此，当得知朗一家在火灾中一无所有时，他们是最早伸出援手的人之一。“这就像一家人，我们非常乐意帮忙，”亚历山大说道。
朗告诉我们：“收到如此多的支持，我几乎有些不好意思。‘你需要纸吗？需要书吗？’这些话几乎让我落泪，因为折纸从业者并不富裕，而人们愿意以各种方式施以援手，这真的令人动容。”
在朗的协助下，亚历山大和拉福塞用从朗工作室收集的灰烬制作了新纸，灰烬就取自锦鲤折纸原本存放的位置。
在阿尔塔迪纳的临时住所中，朗开始折叠一整面锦鲤墙——他的作品与工作室精神，都被融入了这新的纸张之中。
“垂直池塘III”今年早些时候在阿尔塔迪纳附近的德斯坎索花园首次亮相。
“看着它们‘游来游去’，我满心欢喜，”朗参观展览时说道，“这正是我愿景的 culmination：让折纸艺术，以及我的一小部分工作室，重获新生。”
这些“鱼”如今正在圣地亚哥的明戈伊国际博物馆再次“游动”，展期至11月。
在临时工作室和家中，朗和妻子黛安在人生的废墟中寻找着美好。毕竟，折纸教会了人耐心。而将锦鲤从灰烬中唤起的罗伯特·朗，将继续从零开始重建，每一次折痕都一丝不苟。
“折纸能让我的思维保持活跃，触动了许多愉悦的神经中枢，”他说，“解决一个极其棘手的问题，最终得到一件美丽的作品，这种感觉真的无比满足。我渴望再次拥有这样的体验。”
更多信息：
- 罗伯特·J·朗折纸官网
- 展览：《捕鱼》，圣地亚哥明戈伊国际博物馆（展至11月1日）
- Origamido工作室，马萨诸塞州黑弗里尔市
- 德斯坎索花园，加州拉肯纳达石岭
- 美国折纸协会
本报道由杨·金制作。编辑：卡罗尔·罗斯
From the ashes arise origami koi
August 23, 2026 / 9:45 AM EDT / CBS News
Starting when he was six years old, Robert Lang has folded life out of paper. Now, at 65, Lang is recognized worldwide as one of today’s masters of origami, responsible for more than 800 origami designs.
Asked if he is comfortable being an origami rock star, Lang replied, “Yeah, I guess I’ve been that long enough that I’ve gotten used to it.”
Origami artist Robert Lang in 2008. Shaul Schwarz/Getty Images
Origami originated in Japan more than three centuries ago, but Lang led its renaissance in the 1990s.
He showed off some of his proudest patterns to “Sunday Morning” back in 2007 at his California home. By then, a physicist who once designed lasers for NASA had designed a full-time origami career combining math and art to create magic.
WATCH, FROM 2007: Origami artist Robert Lang (YouTube Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCE8IiuvWU
From 2007: Origami artist Robert Lang by CBS Sunday Morning on YouTube
Is it still magical? “Absolutely,” he said, “creating something that seems impossible, then making it possible.”
But the unthinkable became possible at the start of 2025, when the Eaton Fires hit Altadena, Calif. Both the home Lang shared with his wife, Diane, and the studio that paper built, were destroyed.
He said, as he videotaped his studio going up in flames, he realized that his life was going to be completely different.
Gone: hundreds of pieces, that took hundreds of hours to create. “It’s weird to say, ‘I lost all my bugs,’ but all my insects and arthropods, which are some of my favorites, some of the most complex, and very hard to fold,” Lang said.
An origami cuckoo clock from 1987 was the only finished figure of his that he saved. “Everything I had envisioned for the next stage of my life is going to be a completely different plan,” he said. “If I’d had more time, or if I’d given myself more time, there’s a lot more I wish I’d shoved, crammed into the back of the car somehow.”
Including his prized koi, which had exhibited in 15 museums over five years before they met their end. They had just come back from a show in Denmark.
The koi were created from paper handmade by Richard Alexander and Michael LaFosse of Origamido Studios in Haverhill, Mass. To have them make paper is like having Antonio Stradivari make a violin. So, when they’d heard the Langs lost everything to the fire, they were among the first to pitch in. “It is a family, so we were very glad to help,” Alexander said.
Origamido’s handmade paper, incorporating ash from Robert Lang’s burnt studio, would be used by Lang to recreate his origami masterpieces. CBS News
Lang told us, “It was almost embarrassing that there was such an outpouring of support. ‘Do you need paper? Do you need books?’ Which practically brought me to tears, because origami people are not rich. And that people were willing to help in all these different ways was really moving.”
With Lang’s help, Alexander and LaFosse made new paper using ashes collected from Lang’s studio, from exactly the spot where the koi exhibit was stored.
Fashioning koi. CBS News
And at his temporary home in Altadena, Lang began folding a new wall of koi – his work, and his studio, embedded into the paper.
“Vertical Pond III” made its first splash earlier this year at Descanso Gardens, near Altadena.
“I love to see them swimming around,” Lang said upon visiting the exhibit. “And it is the culmination of this vision of bringing origami, bringing a little bit of my studio, back to life.”
Earlier this year, Robert Lang’s origami koi were on view at California’s Descanso Gardens in an installation titled “Vertical Pond III: From the Ashes.” CBS News
The fish are swimming again in San Diego’s Mingei International Museum until November.
And in his makeshift workspace and temporary home, Lang and his wife, Diane, are finding beauty among the ruins of their lives. After all, origami teaches patience. And Robert Lang, who made fish rise from the ashes, will continue to rebuild, one crease at a time.
“Origami keeps my mind going, and it tickles a lot of the pleasure centers,” he said. “There’s just something really satisfying about solving a really hard problem, and that the solution results in something beautiful. I long to have that experience again.”
Robert Lang’s origami koi swim again. CBS News
For more info:
- Robert J. Lang Origami
- Exhibition: To Catch a Fish, at Mingei International Museum, San Diego (through Nov. 1)
- Origamido Studios, Haverhill, Mass.
- Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge, Calif.
- Origami USA
Story produced by Young Kim. Editor: Carol Ross.
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