'Secret Garden' still all the rage

Artwork taken from the coloring book “Secret Garden” are on display at “Book by Book,” a cafe in Sangam-dong, Seoul. / Courtesy of KL Publishing Inc.

By Kwon Ji-youn

The coloring book craze has yet to lose steam.

Since Johanna Basford’s “Secret Garden” was published locally in August 2014, the coloring book sections of bookstores have been teeming with fans of all ages, from teenage girls to middle-aged women. Copies of “Secret Garden” have been flying off the shelves, even more so since singer IU was spotted with one on the KBS drama “The Producers.”

As of Thursday, some 300,000 imprints of the unexpected bestseller have sold in 2015, largely to office workers and students who are looking for a hobby that would help them unwind after work or school. “Secret Garden” claims to be an “anti-stress coloring book” after all.

“It gets my mind off the stresses I’m under at work,” said Im Eun-yeong, a magazine editor. “When I’m coloring, I don’t think. It really speeds up time, too.”

The New York Times describes Basford as a literary celebrity in Korea, where the coloring book craze continues to spread. Coloring books for adults occupy bestseller tables at most Kyobo Book Centers in Seoul and pages of unfinished coloring work from the book fill people’s social media profiles.

Cover image of “Secret Garden” / Courtesy of KL Publishing Inc.

A KL Publishing Inc. staff member, who declined to be named, said the company first printed just 2,000 copies of “Secret Garden” because it wasn’t sure how the Korean literary market would react to such a book. But all 2,000 copies sold in just three days, and the next 3,000 vanished within a week. Simultaneously, sales of coloring pencils, crayons and markers skyrocketed.

“My creativity is cultivated by a curious imagination and a delight in the fantastic,” Basford explains on her website. “Much of my work has roots in the flora and fauna that surrounded me growing up on my parent’s fish farm in rural Scotland.”

Basford’s hand-drawn ink illustrations are intricate, so it’s not easy to stay within the lines, but this forces the reader to focus. Because the designs are of flowers, leaves, bushes and trees, the reader hardly agonizes over which colors to choose for what surfaces, and the repeated strokes of pencil on paper has a way of soothing the reader when he or she is tense or angry.

“It’s an example of art therapy,” one psychotherapist said. “With such a creative method of expression, people find themselves objectifying their stresses, or lessening the impact of such stresses on their happiness or lack thereof. Coloring books have lowered the barriers for those who have always wanted to attempt art therapy, since all they need to do is buy a coloring book and a set of colored pencils. It is a very healthy way of dealing with daily anxiety or tension.”

“Kidults” are especially fond of coloring books. A portmanteau of the words “kid” and “adult,” “kidults” refer to adults with interests usually deemed more suitable for children. According to a recent analysis by online retailer Interpark, buyers of coloring books in Korea were mainly women in their 30s and 40s.