Australia Post welcomes Year of the Tiger with new stamps

Australia Post has issued a new set of stamps and coins, featuring playful images of tigers, to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Tiger.

The stamps, designed by award-winning artist and illustrator Chrissy Lau, are a testament to the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words.

The Year of the Tiger will fall on Feb 1 this year.

For the second consecutive year, Lau, who is of Chinese heritage but grew up in northern England, has been commissioned by Australia Post to design the annual Chinese New Year stamps.

"The tigers are very active, courageous, persistent, (and) quite stubborn ... I also look at the wider celebration of the Lunar New Year, and all the symbolism that comes with Chinese and Asian culture," Lau told Xinhua.

The images of tigers resemble the "lucky cat" figurines that are commonly seen in Chinese and Japanese restaurants and Asian grocery stores in Australia.

Lau, who weaved in images full of symbolism in Asian cultures, told Xinhua that she wanted the vibrant images to "evoke nostalgia and a sense of multiculturalism."