Chinese Lunar New Year: UN issues stamp featuring Year of the Dog

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2018 is the Year of the Dog. And in celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the United Nations Postal Administration has issued a special "dog stamp". CGTN's He Weiwei talks to the designer.

A gift for 2018. This dog stamp released by the United Nations features the artwork of Chinese designer Pan Hu. Its bright red and gold are accentuated by a visual design technique called 'figure-ground reversal', which makes the two dog shapes perfectly match one another.

PAN HU DESIGNER "In other animal stamps, usually we only see one single image, so this time I tried to put many together, like a jigsaw puzzle. I think this reversal design represents the concept of cooperation, unity and complementation quite well."

The stamp costs 1 US dollar and 15 cents; about 7 yuan. The UN is the only organization in the world other than a country, permitted to issue postage stamps.

HE WEIWEI SHENZHEN For dog lovers, it's exciting to know that the United Nations have issued a "dog stamp" to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. The dog image comes from the designer's pet dog, "Duo La".

PAN HU DESIGNER "The image looks a little bit like my dog -- I got inspired by it. And I gave this image a style of Chinese traditional paper-cutting, as this stamp shows the UN's respect and recognition to the Chinese traditional culture."

The UN's first release of a Chinese zodiac stamp came in 2010, the year of the tiger. He Weiwei, CGTN, Shenzhen.