China Post Group unveiled a new series of special stamps with the theme of China Dream in New York on Tuesday.

It's the first time that the China's official postal services has held a stamp unveiling ceremony outside of China.

China Dream-National Rejuvenation is the second in a set of three China Dream stamp series, the first of which were released last year, said Li Pizheng, vice-president of the China Post Group, at the ceremony held at the Asian Cultural Center.

China Post will issue the third series, China Dream-People's Happiness, in 2015.

Master Fo Tao, one of China's most prominent calligraphers and scholars, inscribed China Dream on the new series of stamps.

"His work adds to the stamps' artistic values," said Li. "The second series depict the economic and cultural achievements China has made during the reform and opening-up. It reflects Chinese people's dream for peace and prosperity."

An exhibition of stamps issued by China Post and themed on Chinese traditional culture was opened at the Asian Cultural Center on the same day.

A new exhibit of Fo's calligraphy opened at the same event. The exhibit, China Dream, at the Asian Cultural Center will run until November. "This exhibit wants to celebrate the China Dream and the China Dream is a dream of peace and harmony," Fo said at the event.

The dream is one that Chinese people have been chasing after from generation to generation, he said, and one that should encompass desire for growth in the world and the nature, along with growth in the country's people.

Guests at the event included Zhang Meifang, deputy consul general of the Chinese Consulate General in New York, Steven C. Rockefeller, Jr, chairman of Rose Rock Group, Mao Zongze, curator of the Asian Cultural Center, and Selig Sacks, co-chair of Foley and Lardner LLP's China practice.

"I come here today not in the capacity of an official, as the deputy consul general, but rather as a good friend, a long-time friend, a decade-long fan of Master Fo Tao. I'm also a big fan of his work," said Zhang.

"In 1776, after 200 years of development and great efforts, the Americas and the American people have worked very hard to bring about the American dream, to develop the US to be the most developed country in the world. So what is the dream of China, and especially the China Dream for the 1.3 billion Chinese?" she said. "To bring about the rejuvenation of the great Chinese nation, to bring about the prosperity of the nation and also the well-being of the peoples. This is the China Dream."

"Let's join our hands together to bring about the Chinese Dream as soon as possible, if not in the next decade. We hope that through this great event, we will join our hands together to bring much closer the people of our two great countries," she said.

Rockefeller, a fourth-generation member of the Rockefeller family, has studied calligraphy under Fo, and said that learning about the art has allowed him to appreciate the power of the form.

"The first thing I would say is that I learned how calligraphy is the absolute foundation and root of Chinese art. It has to do with the way the keystrokes are executed, it has to do with the qi," he said. "I'd also like to share the idea that this practice is available to all of us and that it can be a forum of increasing international understanding."

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 09/24/2014 page2)