‘Keep smiling’: Cheerful tiger stamps to ring in the Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year will get an extra bit of roar in February, as Australia rolls out cheerful lucky tiger stamps to commemorate the occasion.

Chrissy Lau designed a series of stamps for Australia Post, marking the Year of the Tiger. Source: Australia Post

The Year of the Tiger will be inked into Australian postage history, as Australia Post issues a commemorative set of stamps to usher in Lunar New Year. 

The Lunar New Year begins on February 1, marking the transition from the Year of the Ox to the Year of the Tiger. 

The animal is said to bring a combination of optimism and purpose to the year.

The Tiger-themed stamps, designed by Sydney-based illustrator Chrissy Lau, feature ‘lucky tigers’, inspired by the lucky cats commonly used as mascots in Chinese and Japanese culture.

Year of the Tiger 2022 stamps Source: Australia Post

“You often see these lucky cats in a lot of Asian stores. Their main function is to attract wealth,” says Lau. 

“It’s an image that is very common in Eastern and Western cultures. It’s a symbol of multiculturalism.”

The lucky tiger stamps are available in three denominations. On the $1.10 stamp, the tiger is holding a plum blossom, which in Chinese culture symbolises “hope and tenacity”, according to Ms Lau.

The $2.20 stamp features the tiger holding the Chinese character “fu”, which translates to “lucky”, and firecrackers, used to scare away evil spirits in traditional Chinese culture.

The $3.30 stamp features two tigers holding a Chinese knot on one hand, symbolising longevity, and a string of oranges in the other hand.

“Oranges are very common during Chinese New Year,” says Lau, “They are also a symbol of wealth.”

Year of the Tiger 2022 stamps Source: Australia Post

Lau says the background colour used on the zodiac stamps was “somewhat a risky decision” as pink is not traditionally applied during Chinese New Year celebrations.

“Because Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day are very close, I thought it would be nice to incorporate some pink to represent love,” Lau says.  

This is the second time the award-winning Chinese Australian artist has been commissioned by Australia Post to design stamps commemorating Lunar New Year. 

This Lunar New Year may be another challenging one for people around the world, so Ms Lau says she wanted to incorporate feelings of “reunion” into the stamp collection.

“It’s been a tough couple of years for everyone because of Covid and no end is in sight. So these stamps are a cute, modern and fun reminder for everyone to keep smiling,” she adds.

The series of stamps were released on January 6.