Our new Auckland branch member, Sophia Zhang Xianyang, is a passionate designer and promoter of cross-cultural communications between New Zealand and China. As a senior designer of Bananaworks Communications‘ creative team, she has contributed much to the design and promotion of the New Zealand Year of the Tiger 2010, Year of the Dragon 2012 and Year of the Snake 2013 stamp collections.
She gave a brief talk recently to Auckland branch on the creative design concept and the significance of the Chinese New Year stamp collections, issued by New Zealand Post, which reflect the increasing cultural integration between New Zealand and China. The designs are so exciting that Sophia has successfully promoted the stamp collections as gifts in diplomatic circles:
• April 2013, Prime Minister John Key presented a “Numbered and Framed Gold Foil Miniature Sheet” of the New Zealand Year of the Snake stamps to Premier of PRC – Li Keqiang.
• April 2012, National Party President, Peter Goodfellow, presented the Limited Edition of the New Zealand Year of The Dragon stamps to Mr. Wang Yang (one of the recent Vice-premiers of PRC).
• The Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, the Ministry of Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and Tourism New Zealand (China Division) use the New Zealand Post Chinese New Year stamp collections as diplomatic gifts.
L-R: Paper-cut Snake, Koru Snake Lantern, Presentation Pack and Gold Foil Miniature Sheet sets
Sophia sees the stamps as a link for closer co-operation between China and New Zealand. Being a Chinese immigrant living and working in New Zealand for nearly 15 years, she feels part of both New Zealand and China and so she grasps any opportunity for improving cross-cultural relations between the two countries. She says that the New Zealand Chinese New Year stamp collections provide excellent opportunities for New Zealanders and Chinese to learn more from each other, as the stamps contain many cultural and iconic links between these two countries.
Sophia was educated at South China Normal University, Guangzhou with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and spent 5+ years as a fine arts teacher and graphic designer at Shenzhen Art School before coming to New Zealand in 1998. She has been deeply involved in cross-cultural communications creative projects since 2002. From 2012, Sophia has spent much of her time promoting the New Zealand Chinese New Year stamp collections to the China market and visited many of the up-and-coming Chinese philately associations, and events as well as meeting leading philatelists in China and worldwide.
From 2012 to 2013, she has been to most of the developed eastern areas of China, running many featured seminars, and giving multi-format interviews with the leading philatelic and public media in China. She also advises commercial organizations with businesses in both New Zealand and China to use the stamp products as corporate gifts.
A well-known Chinese philatelist Mr. Dingguo Dai commented that: “Under the passionate promotion by Sophia Zhang, the New Zealand zodiac stamp collections have begun to raise more and more keen interest from philatelists also public in China as well as New Zealand, and this further promotes the keenness in China to understand more of New Zealand and its culture.”
This year she received the Business Innovation Award at the New Zealand Chinese Business Awards for 2012. Click HERE for a video clip of the award ceremony.
Click HERE for an interview with Sophia made after the award ceremony, which introduces her story: from China to New Zealand; the creative concepts, promotion challenges and the significance of the New Zealand Chinese New Year stamp collections.
Sophia feels that her promotion of the New Zealand Post China New Year stamps is her way of “building a bridge of cultural rainbows” to pass on, in a small way, the cultural heritage of both countries”. Sophia would also welcome any suggestions, particularly regarding furthering inter-cultural relationships between the two countries [[email protected]].
Click HERE for more details of the Year of the Snake stamps (on New Zealand Post website)
Click HERE to download a .pdf of Design Concepts for the Year of the Snake stamps (2MB)
Duncan France, August 2013
