Chinese New Year stamps to be celebrated
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
In the world of graphic artists, none has earned a postal stamp of approval on the order of Clarence Lee's.
Photo courtesy Clarence Lee
Lee designed the official postage stamp issued to mark each Chinese New Year for the past 12 years — working his way through the entire lunar zodiac.
Sets of Clarence Lee's 12 Chinese New Year stamps will go on sale now that the Year of the Rooster is just around the corner again.
And now that the Year of the Rooster is just around the corner again, the U.S. Postal Service has decided it's time to say thanks.
The 2005 Lunar Stamp Day Issue Celebration is set for Jan. 6 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom. It's an event honoring Lee and kicking off the sale of the complete Chinese New Year set.
Each will sell for $8.80, a little more than face value, because 8 is seen as a lucky number.
"You pay a little extra," said Lee, 69. "But for the Chinese, to be good luck, it's worth it."
Hawai'i is reaping a little of that luck in hosting the celebration, said event chairman Wes Fong: San Francisco's ever-dominant Chinese community had snared hosting honors initially.
But Honolulu came roaring back and is planning for a festive party, Fong said. The full 36-member Royal Hawaiian Band will play, a lion dance (the fancy kind, with the dancers on poles) will create a spectacle, and a dragon will make its appearance.
A bit of mystery surrounds Lee's selection for this design gig, but he figures being acquainted with a member of the U.S. Postal Service advisory committee — an art professor from his days at Yale — somehow smoothed the way.
The drive to create the stamp actually began in 1988, when Joan Chen, a leader in the Organization of Chinese Americans, was incensed to find a book on railway history that ignored the role of the Chinese in laying the rails. She began lobbying for a commemorative Chinese stamp as compensation.
That campaign stalled until Claudine Cheng, the organization's national president, pressed for a stamp to honor the immigrants, Fong said. Postal authorities settled on a Chinese New Year stamp and Lee was commissioned to design one for 1993, the Year of the Rooster.
Fong said nobody realized what a big deal stamp collecting was in China. About 2 million rooster stamps sold there, Fong said, and the Postal Service spotted a great fund-raising opportunity.
The rest is philatelic history.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
