Previously I submitted a short article about the postal history related to my late uncle Mr. Chan Kong Fung, and my childhood memories about CPA.  This article is a follow-up with some of my findings in the Chinese philatelic literature during my quest for philatelic knowledge.

 My access to the Chinese philatelic literature is quite limited.  One of the major limitations is that I cannot search the Chinese web as easily as I can do the English one.  I do have reprints of a few of the old journals, namely The Chinese Philatelic Classics, Tientsin Philatelic Monthly and Modern Philatelic Journal edited by Mr. S.L.Chung.  I find reading those articles of yesteryears fascinating. By following the advertisements and announcements in those journals, one can see that some of the active philatelists in various part of China subsequently moved to Hong Kong (Figure 1). 

 From the journals, I found out that both my uncle and father belonged to some of the philatelic societies in Mainland China.  My uncle’s membership number in The Chinese Philatelic Society was #291.  In one of the articles published in Tientsin Philatelic Monthly, my uncle, as then vice chair of the CPA, wrote to the author about an embargo on stamps at that time (Figure 1).  In another article of the same journal, the author wrote about philatelists bypassing the embargo by sending the stamps to the States via Macau (Figure 2).   Since my primary interest is Hong Kong postal history, I should be able to find evidence of the bypass by widening my study and examine the Macau postal history during that period.  This would be one fertile and exciting topic for research!

 One of the more significant discovery closer to home was in a daily newspaper published in Hong Kong in the 1950s.  The newspaper is called The Shanghai Daily News that included a philatelic section with many short articles on various philately tidbits.  In the July 26^th 1954 issue, I found a picture of my father featured as being a representative to an international meeting (Figure 3).  According to the history of CPA, there was also a philatelic column published in Wah Kiu Yat Po.  These two papers must have a wealth of information related to early philatelic history in Hong Kong. CPA members who have access to the microfilm of the newspapers should try to preserve it in CD-ROM format for easy access.  I would strongly encourage the younger CPA members who are computer savvy to undertake this project.

As I mentioned in my last article, my hope is to pass on the family tradition to my two young boys.  After a long hiatus, I rekindled my philatelic interest when I was in graduate school in Iowa during the 1980s.  Like my father, I tried to interest my two boys in philately early.  Figure 5 A and B showed our visit to the Postal Museum in Washington, DC when my older son Benjamin is only 11 months old. While I was working in San Antonio, Texas, I often brought Benjamin in a stroller to the monthly stamp club meeting.  San Antonio Philatelic Association (SAPA) was formed in 1896 and has been meeting continuously ever since.  It was at that club that I acquired some interesting large dragons from a retired Air Force Colonel.  San Antonio is a town with quite a strong military presence and a lot of the military personnel collected stamps when they were stationed overseas. I had several lucky finds there during my nine-year stay at San Antonio. The Colonel later sold his whole China collection to a local stamp shop. Unfortunately, by the time I got to it, it was already fragmented with a lot of the nice pieces sold.   

I do a little bit of business-related travels all over the United States and internationally.  Whenever I visit a new place, I tried to visit the Postal Museums and local stamp shops if possible.  Those experiences will merit another article. Figure 6 shows my younger son, Dexter, visiting the Postal Museum of Monaco with me.  Occasionally, Dexter will come with me to the Greater Augusta Stamp Club meeting where I am a current member.  At his young age, Dexter still has fun looking through the penny box.  Being a teenager, Benjamin already lost his interest in pretty stamps.  He prefers his computer and Internet games.  Tried as I might, I can see that the kids are being lured away by other high tech distractions.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if my sons go down the same journey as I am doing now and found my articles about themselves in some high tech media in the future!

 I believe it is our duty to make the hobby more interesting and appealing to the next generation.  Otherwise our hobby as we know it will cease to exist. One already sees the diminishing number of stamp stores across the continental US.  Many old time stamp merchants either sold out or retire. Often times I find that the stores I visited just a year or so ago will be gone.  Many stores have changed from storefront retail to on-line auction.  It is truly a sad situation.   Although one can find more varieties of philatelic materials on the Internet, the joy and excitement of pouring over the stocks of old time stamp stores can never be replaced.  I wonder what stamp collecting will be like 10 years down the road.  Maybe shopping in the virtual world will suit our next generation better.  For me, I prefer the old style of treasure hunting in the unknown and unsearched territory. That’s what philatelic adventure is all about!