Dragon fever

It may be fair to call Chinese people "descendants of the dragon" as they never hesitate to show their great love for this totemic creature, which is the only mythical animal in the 12 Chinese zodiac signs.

The most recent evidence is that the price of a newly released series of stamps has risen six to seven times the original price over the course of two weeks, mainly because they are dedicated to the Chinese Year of the Dragon.

Before these "dragon stamps" were released on January 5, they had attracted much attention from not only collectors but also the public, and since then, they have been selling like hotcakes. People queued around the block to snap up the dragon stamps in the first week of their release despite objections from some people who criticized the design as being too fierce for the happy time of Chinese New Year.

The 2012 dragon stamps have been available for two weeks now, but the market's fever over them has not died out. The price for the smaller edition of dragon stamps has risen from 7.2 yuan ($1.14) to 45 yuan, while the larger edition's price has skyrocketed from 24 yuan to more than 170 yuan. Even single stamps, which were originally 1.2 yuan, are now valued at 4 yuan.

In fact, Chinese people's passion for the dragon stamp has quite a history. Since the first dragon stamps came out, they have been warmly welcomed and continue to be a favorite among collectors.

The first "dragon stamp" was nothing like today's version, which is part of a series of stamps dedicated to the Chinese zodiac. Rather, it was a kind of bond certification sealed with the longxi, the imperial jade seal used exclusively by the emperor, issued by Nurhaci, the first emperor of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).

The earliest iteration of the dragon stamp used for postage didn't come out until 1878, when the Qing government started trial runs for a post office. The first series of stamps to be released in China were the legendary "large dragon stamps," which featured the "dragon in the cloud," the symbol of the royal family of the Qing dynasty. The Chinese characters spelling out "Great Qing Post Office" were branded on the stamps and "China" appears in English as well. The value of these large dragon stamps is currently about 16,000 yuan each.

Later, some versions of dragon stamps were released by the Qing government on special national occasions, like the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Cixi and the enthronement of the Emperor Xuantong, the last emperor of Chinese feudal dynasty, in 1908.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, stamps commemorating the 12 Chinese zodiac years were introduced for the first time in 1980. And stamps dedicated to the Chinese Years of the Dragon were released separately in 1988 and 2000. The one released in 1988 is a one-stamp series with a flying dragon as its main pattern.

This is the third set of stamps that marks the Year of Dragon. Although collection experts forecast that the prices of these dragon stamps will go down after the Spring Festival, people are still eager to own a stamp with the furious dragon on it. Maybe Chinese care less about how much money these stamps will appreciate in value, and are rather moved by the auspicious meaning of this mythical beast, the spirit of the nation and the respect and preservation of Chinese culture.