填色書風靡 致鉛筆脫銷

A Scottish illustrator has been credited with boosting the fortunes of the global pencil industry after the surprise success of her "colouring-in" books for grown-ups.
一位蘇格蘭插畫師專門爲成年人設計的“填色圖書”意外走紅，由此推動了全球鉛筆產業的迅猛發展。

Johanna Basford's books of elaborately-crafted fill-in drawings have tapped into a huge demand from those seeking to switch off from iPads, laptops and computer games.
喬漢娜·貝斯福設計的一系列填色手繪書大都做工精緻，並且極大地迎合了部分當代人的需求，爲他們成功脫離平板、筆記本和電腦遊戲找到了一個新出口。

Now, having already topped the Amazon best-seller lists, her tomes are also giving a massive boost in global sales for high-quality pencils, as colouring-in fans compete to make masterpieces of their work.
目前，她的作品已位居亞馬遜暢銷排行榜榜首。大批填圖愛好者們爲了創作出自己的傑作都競相購買鉛筆，從而帶動了全球優質鉛筆的銷量。

Far from being a casualty themselves of the digital age, pencil manufacturers are now struggling to cope with demand, with Faber Castell, the world's largest wood pencil manufacturer, revealing that it was now having to run extra shifts at its factories.
在數字時代，鉛筆生產商並沒有想象中的悠閒，相反，他們想盡辦法提高產量以滿足龐大的市場需求。世界最大的木質鉛筆生產商菲博卡斯特近日透露，他們的工廠目前仍在加班加點生產鉛筆。

"People like colouring-in because they are fed up with digital," Ms Basford, 32, told The Sunday Telegraph. "There is something nice about picking up a pencil and a pen. You are not going to get interrupted by Twitter, and there is also a childhood nostalgia element to it. The last time you did a bit of colouring in, you probably weren't about thinking about mortgage or Brexit."
32歲的貝斯福女士對《星期日電訊報》說道：“人們之所以喜歡塗色畫本，是因爲他們厭倦了數碼產品。拿起筆來畫畫是一件讓人愉快的事情。這樣你就不會被推特上的消息打擾，而且還能讓你回憶起小時候的美好時光。專心填色畫畫的你，也可以暫時不被住房貸款和（英國）退歐這樣的事情困擾了。”

Rather like other recent middle-class crazes like allotments, ukelele playing, and home-brewing and baking, colouring-in appeals to a nostalgia for a simpler, analogue era.
近期，中產階級盛行着各種活動，如侍弄小菜園、彈奏由克里裏、自制葡萄酒、家庭烘培等等。但與這些不同，塗色手繪更多地是營造一種淳樸、簡單的懷舊氛圍。

However, while it might be healthier than tucking into a home-made sponge cake inspired by the Great British Bake Off, there is still an element of a guilty pleasure to it.
然而，儘管比起由英國家庭烘培大賽掀起的自制鬆糕熱，塗色作畫好似更爲健康，但人們在享受繪畫愉悅的同時，仍存有一絲罪惡感。

For not everyone approves of university-educated adults dedicating their spare hours to a pastime that - in the view of critics anyway - ranks somewhere below puzzler books and Ludo.
上過大學的人應該在這種消遣上花時間嗎？並非所有人都認同——至少在批評家眼裏是這樣的：塗色畫畫比不上拼字和魯多遊戲。

Leading the chorus of disapproval is the comedian Russell Brand, who produced a recent sketch entitled "Adult Colouring Books: Is This the Apocalypse?"
喜劇演員拉塞爾·布蘭德是反對這種娛樂方式的主力，他爲此畫了一幅素描，題爲“成人塗色書：是災難嗎？”

"What has turned us into terrified divs that want to live in childish stupors?" he raged, accusing colouring-in fans of being scared of the modern world.
“是什麼讓我們變成了膽小的巨嬰？”他氣憤地說道，指責塗色書迷們是在逃避現實。

And what did Ms Basford say about detractors like Mr Brand? "It's a case of whatever makes you happy, there's no right or wrong about it," she said. "Who knows, maybe he just hasn't found the right colouring-in book yet."
那麼貝斯福女士如何看待布蘭德等人的評價呢？“這件事只與快樂有關，和對錯無關，”她說。“誰知道呢，也許只是因爲他還沒找到他喜歡的那種塗色書而已。”

As Ms Basford saw it: "Colouring-in fans just love their pens and pencils, they become real artists. I get messages from people in New Zealand and Australia saying there are big shortages now. It's really nice that something I was passionate about is now shared worldwide."
她認爲：“熱衷於塗色作畫的人就是單純地喜歡畫筆，這時的他們是真正的藝術家。我聽說新西蘭和澳大利亞的鉛筆市場現在供不應求。我熱愛的東西能夠被全世界的人喜歡，真是太棒了。”

Ms Basford's first three books of drawings have now sold some 16 million copies worldwide, with three million alone in China. A new one, Magical Jungle will come out in April.
貝斯福女士最早發行的三本繪畫書現在在全球已經售出了1600萬冊，光是中國市場銷售量就達300萬冊。新書《魔法森林》將於四月份出版。

"Colouring-in" clubs have formed worldwide, meeting in cafes and online to compare their works, and keeping the lead in the pencil of the stationery industry.
世界各地紛紛成立了“塗色”俱樂部，會員們會在咖啡館或網上比較各自的作品。這也促成了鉛筆在整個文具市場的銷售領先地位。