Coloring books of the Palace Museum to debut in October

A black and white pattern uploaded by the official Sina Weibo account of the Palace Museum. [Photo/Sina Weibo of gugongweb]

In China, coloring books are enjoying a boom. More and more stressed-out white-collar workers say they want to benefit from the quiet zen that a coloring book can bring. However, some critics stressed that these books are "lack of humanity nutrition", and focus too much on color instead of culture.

Qiao Xinsheng, scholar and professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, expressed worries that we may be living in a time of oversimplified, low quality reading material.

"We are in an era of reading pictures, and not words, but without deep and thorough reading, the free thinking mind will be lost. This is alarming. Pictures will fill people's eyes and brains but they may flash by like slides. What will be left in our minds then?"

In this regard, the museum staffs had made full preparations already. According to the publishing company of the new book series, ancient architecture experts wrote brief introduction to all the patterns in the book to make sure that readers can gain more knowledge from reading, all while enjoying the action of coloring.

On Weibo, thousands of netizens promise to buy the book series as soon as it debuts. Meanwhile, some are worried about the price.

"It is an excellent way to popularize traditional cultural knowledge in the country, but if the price of the book is too expansive, many people may miss such a good chance," said @63_summer, a Weibo user.

On this, the editorial office of the upcoming books said that they will certainly take the level of consumption into consideration, and set the right price for the readers.