12 YEARS OF VIBRANT LUNAR NEW YEAR STAMPS FROM THE US POSTAL SERVICE

Since 2008, Hong Kong-born, Brooklyn-based illustrator Kam Mak has been creating vibrant USPS stamps that honor the Chinese zodiac. Here, to ring in Year of the Pig, he shares his childhood memories of Lunar New Year.

Carey Dunne

2019 Year of the Pig Lunar New Year stamp, designed by Kam Mak and issued by the United States Postal Service (all images courtesy United States Postal Service)

Today, the first day of the Lunar New Year, Chinese communities all over the world are bidding farewell to the Year of the Dog and ringing in the Year of the Pig. The US Postal Service is celebrating, too, with the launch of the twelfth and final installment in its latest “Celebrating Lunar New Year” stamp series.

Since 2008, Hong Kong-born, Brooklyn-based illustrator Kam Mak has been creating vibrant USPS stamps that pay homage to the Chinese zodiac. Instead of going the obvious route and illustrating the animals associated with each year, he chose to depict symbolic objects that feature in Lunar New Year celebrations, from cumquats and bamboo to firecrackers and red lanterns. Each stamp also features small animal illustrations, in traditional paper-cutout style, by the late artist Clarence Lee, who created the very first USPS Lunar New Year-themed stamp series, issued in 1992.

In 1971, when Mak was ten, he immigrated with his family from Hong Kong to New York City’s Chinatown. The transition wasn’t easy.

“I was a very troubled kid, very bad in school, very lost,” he says. “English was really hard for me. One thing I was really good at was making pictures. My teacher told me about a city art workshop that gives kids paid summer jobs and gives them purpose.” He got recruited for the program, helped paint murals on the Lower East Side, and soon enrolled at LaGuardia High School of Music and Art. Now he’s a professor of illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Many of Mak’s fondest childhood memories stem from Lunar New Year celebrations. “Lunar New Year is like the Chinese equivalent of Christmas for [Christian] American kids — it’s the most festive, fun holiday,” Mak says.

2018 Lunar New Year stamp, designed by Kam Mak and issued by the United States Postal Service

Here, Mak explains the symbolic significance of each of his 12 zodiac illustrations, from 2008’s Year of the Rat stamp to his just-launched Year of the Pig stamp, which features some “very auspicious” peach blossoms.

2019: Year of the Pig…………………

https://hyperallergic.com/483304/12-years-of-vibrant-lunar-new-year-stamps-from-the-us-postal-