Australia, Hong Kong celebrate with stamps

AUSTRALIA Post has issued a new set of stamps and coins, featuring playful images of tigers, to celebrate the coming Year of the Tiger.

The stamps, designed by awardwinning artist and illustrator Chrissy Lau, are a testament to the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words.

For the second consecutive year, Lau, who is of Chinese heritage but grew up in northern England, has been commissioned by the Australian postal service to design the annual Chinese New Year stamps.

“The tigers are very active, courageous, persistent, (and) quite stubborn ... I also look at the wider celebration of the Lunar New Year, and all the symbolism that comes with Chinese and Asian culture,” Lau said.

The images of tigers resemble the “lucky cat” figurines that are commonly seen in Chinese and Japanese restaurants and Asian grocery stores in Australia.

Lau, who weaved in images full of symbolism in Asian cultures, said she wanted the vibrant images to evoke nostalgia and a sense of multiculturalism.

To that end, the tigers on the three stamps are holding in their upraised paws traditional festive objects such as plum blossoms, firecrackers, lucky endless knots and a string of mandarins.

“There are quite playful elements in the design, but if you know about Asian culture, you’ll understand there are deeper meanings,” Lau said.

The plum blossom, for example, can survive harsh cold so it has come to represent perseverance in harsh times.

Lau hopes the designs will inspire people to seek out the meaning behind the Asian iconography.

“I hope the stamps make people smile and give them a sense of fun,” she said.

Tiger is the third zodiac sign in the Chinese zodiac cycle. The Chinese zodiac cycle contains 12 animals that record years and reflect people’s attributes.

Meanwhile, Hongkong Post also released special stamps themed on the Year of the Tiger. It commissioned a set of four mint stamps and a stamp sheetlet showing the tiger in different handicrafts.

The four mint stamps display a tiger soft toy, a porcelain tiger, a ceramic tiger and a paper art tiger that look playful, against a warm gradient background with embroidered plants, heralding good luck in the Year of the Tiger.

Other philatelic products to be released include the “Gold and Silver Stamp Sheetlet on Lunar New Year Animals – Ox/Tiger” and Lunar New Year greeting cards.