Chinese museums jump on coloring book bandwagon

The Palace Museum

A colored pattern of decorations often seen on traditional Chinese architecture. [File photo]

In October, a series of three coloring books of the Palace Museum will be released in China. They will feature drawings from architecture, patterns from royal clothing and royal jewelry, as well as patterns of royal supplies. Two of them are currently being typeset.

The book series uses drawings and patterns from the Forbidden City as the basis for the patterns. Some of them are original pattern designs of the Qing Dynasty (1636--1912). Other paintings replicate the patterns on the precious cultural relics by veteran employees of the museum. There are even designs which were drawn by the younger staff members of the museum.

In addition, ancient architecture experts wrote brief introductions to all the patterns in the book to make sure that readers can gain more knowledge from reading, all while enjoying the fun of coloring.

To endorse the new book series, the museum staff members conducted an online popularity test on its official Weibo account from July 19th to mid August. It took only several days before it received more than 6, 000 praises, relays and comments. Around 200 netizens uploaded their colored-in designs.

According to Guo Ting, social media manager of the museum's Weibo account, The Palace Museum thought about publishing colored photos of architecture in the Forbidden City as early as 2008, because they are aesthetically pleasing.

"But our thoughts back then were not as 'fashionable' as the coloring idea today. Since June, with the popularity of the coloring book, our team thought about trying it with patterns found in the museum," Guo added.