This is the work of Atkah Yahya from Malaysia. It’s a page from Johanna Basford’s “The Enchanted Forest,” first published in Feb. 2015. (Photo : Johanna Basford/Facebook)
If a picture paints a thousand words, then one might as well have them brimming in colors.
With the blossoming coloring craze in the country, new Chinese coloring books will hit local bookstores nationwide this coming spring, according to the Global Times.
More than the comfort coloring brings, the upcoming coloring books will also aim to promote traditional Chinese culture.
Coloring books that promote the country’s culture include “One Belt and One Road: Painting Dunhuang,” “Coloring Traditional Patterns” and “Chinese Dermatoglyphic Patterns.”
A similar kind of book with an apparent similar purpose surfaced last year.
Beijing-based Forbidden City Publishing House launched “Color the Forbidden City,” the first in a series of three, in Oct. 2015, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Not only does the book offer a chance for someone to pass away time comfortably by coloring, it also provides a learning opportunity.
According to WSJ, the patterns presented in the coloring book come with corresponding explanations provided by architectural experts.
Local publishers might have apparently been inspired by the overwhelming response of the people to the coloring book, “Secret Garden.”
First published in 2013, the 96-page “Secret Garden, An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book” by U.K.-based Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford, according to its publisher Laurence King Publishing, “had sold 6.8m copies around the world,” reported The Guardian in Aug. 2015.
The publisher added that 3 million of those copies were sold in China. The book became available in the country in June 2015.
When asked why people find coloring pleasurable and comforting, American clinical psychologist Scott M. Bea said that this activity is like “a meditative exercise,” according to Cleveland Clinic.
“Adult coloring requires modest attention focused outside of self-awareness. It is a simple activity that takes us outside ourselves,” said Bea.
According to Chen Ying-shan, director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Hsinchu Cathay General Hospital in Taiwan, those who are fond of coloring should eat plenty of green vegetables because they make the eyes healthy, reported Taipei Times.
Chen also made three more suggestions: to keep a distance of 33 centimeters from the book when coloring, to limit this activity to 20 minutes a day, and to take a 30-minute break after doing it.
