Everything in this garden is rosy

Young people gather at LA CASA, a Beijing-based creative artist studio, to participate in a party with the theme Secret Garden. [Photo by Yu Zhuo / For China Daily]

"The empty space on the paper creates room for imagination. Every color I fill in the space makes the painting a unique work of art," says Zhou Sheng, a lawyer in Heze, Shandong province, said.

According to the 38-year-old lawyer, "After hours, I completed the coloring in and showed it to my friends. When they praised my work, I felt proud ... It is really beyond my expectations ... crayons (have) become so important for me at my age."

In an interview with Shenyang Evening News earlier this month, Zhang Qiu, a Beijing-based artistic behavioral therapist and consultant psychologist, said: "Artistic behaviors have therapeutic values. Clinically, painting, pottery making, music, singing and dancing are artistic therapeutic means that are often used to relieve patients' anxiety and depression symptoms. For adults, coloring in is also an artistic behavior and has positive therapeutic values ... (it can) treat their psychological sub-health conditions."

Unlike the tranquilizing Secret Garden, a new coloring book for adults featuring scary zombies, amputated limbs, internal organs and blood became an instant hit in Brazil after its launch in August. The book was published in Taiwan in late September, and readers say coloring in the zombie patterns eases their anxiety and the anger accumulated in heart.

But some people don't see any therapeutic value in coloring in pictures and patterns. Zhu Hongli, an office clerk in Shanghai, says her anxiety builds up, because it takes several hours to fill in all the colors in one picture. "I always think that there are so many things to do when I'm coloring in the innumerable little spaces, and matching the right colors is also a 'brain-exhausting' exercise."

Some doctors, too, warn of the negative impact of coloring in pictures for long hours, such as cervical spondylosis and shortsightedness. And for most people, regular exercise is better than coloring books to maintain physical and mental health.