Paper calendars make comeback with creative strokes

Du Xin, 32, picked up a calendar in a bookstore in North China's Tianjin. Designed with a crimson and dark green cover and bound by two golden rings, the calendar features many traditional Chinese elements.

"Nowadays many people don't use calendars anymore, but I think calendars today have become more delicate, interesting and very different from those in the past," Du said.

Traditionally, calendars have played an important role in Chinese culture. They provide the lunar dates for guiding the agricultural life along with what is suitable to do on each day. Many people use them for selecting auspicious days for weddings, funerals, moving, or starting a business.

However, they had lost popularity, especially among young people as many turn to digital calendars on smartphones. The new decade has seen the market abounds with creative calendars with novel designs and interesting content that have regained popularity among young people.

Du's calendar is one of them. Nearly 300,000 such calendars had been sold nationwide by the end of December 2019, according to Wang Lei, shop manager of Sisyphe bookstore in Tianjin.

Apart from displaying dates on each page of the calendar, Du's calendar pages include a question related to people's lives or the specific date, as well as an excerpt picked from a classic book.

For example, on the page of Jan 24, the Chinese New Year's Eve and a day for family reunions, the question asks "Have you returned home tonight?" It was accompanied by an excerpt describing people's celebration of the festival from Chinese writer Laoshe.

Zhou Xiaowei, product manager of Sisyphe Calendar, said customers buy the calendar more for its creativity than simply for checking dates. "They want the paper calendar to show their individuality," she said.