The "Red Chamber Dream" calendar features an elegant red woven cover. (Photo : Dangdang)
A new trend is emerging. Well-designed cultural calendars, which were hot sellers toward the end of 2015, are being posted on social media, reported China Daily.
The cultural calendars are complete with creative designs, informative content and delicate printing.
They are mostly sold from 60 to 100 yuan ($9-15). These editions are selling well despite being pricier than typical datebooks.
On Singles' Day last year, more than 50,000 volumes of the Palace Museum's 2016 datebook were sold. It has since remained a bestseller among art books on e-commerce store JD.com.
Other cultural calendars that have proven popular include "Calendar: Beauty of Chinese Characters," the "Red Chamber Dream" calendar and the "Penguins 2016 Wall Calendar."
The "Red Chamber Dream" calendar has been voted as one of the top 10 books of 2015 in the online poll of Zhonghua Book Company.
The cover of the "Red Chamber Dream" calendar was created using a special kind of paper featuring a red woven design, true to its name. The inside of the datebook also features poems and ancient paintings from the classic Chinese novel "Dream of the Red Chamber," as well as traditional customs, festivals and solar terms.
"Calendar: Beauty of Chinese Characters" features 12 themes for each month of the year. It tells about the origin of Chinese characters, the evolution of chirography and other interesting information about Hanzi, the term for the characters.
By reading the book, one gains a complete knowledge of Hanzi's history.
Several people have begun posting their calendars online. Comments have mostly been expressing fond memories of traditional knowledge.
