Canada issues Chinatown gates stamps to celebrate Asian heritage

A Collector shows a colletion of the Chinatown Gates stamps she bought at a post office in Toronto, Canada, May 1, 2013. Canada Post launched a special series of stamps featuring Chinatown gates located in eight cities across the country on Wednesday to highlight the longstanding heritages of Chinese-Canadians. [Photo/Xinhua]

The architectural beauty of Canada's Chinatown gateway arches was the focus of Canada Post's new special stamp edition, which was used to highlight and celebrate the longstanding Chinese-Canadian heritage.

Issued on Wednesday in Toronto, the Gates of Chinatown series put the overlooked masterpieces back in the limelight.

The stamps feature eight Chinatown arches, also known as paifang in Mandarin, in eight cities -- Toronto, Mississauga, Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal.

Launched to commemorate the country's Asian Heritage Month, a celebration on the beauty and wisdom of various Asian cultures, they were aimed at honoring and drawing attention to the many contributions that Chinese-Canadians have made to the country over the decades, Canada Post's retail business manager Danny Kotsopoulos said.

"We had a lot of Chinese over the years and decades who were involved in helping build Canada," said Kotsopoulos. "In terms of being symbolic of new Asian-Canadians, bringing a bit of their history and their work and integrating it with the Canadian heritage as well, it's a nice way to be responsive to the community."

Each Chinese gate in the series is interpreted by eight different artists. Albert Ng, the illustrator who worked on the gateway of the Mississauga Chinese Center, was on hand to sign stamps for collectors.

The making of the stamps has taken two years. Albert Ng took more than 500 photos for reference, and made at least 50 to 60 sketches just to perfect his own interpretation of the gate.

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