My name is Wei Yongkun. I am 26 and I work in Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou Province. I’ve been a sports fan since I was a child. I am also fascinated by stamps. In 1992 I started collecting sports stamps; among them, Olympic stamps are my favorite. This hobby is what has connected me with sports, especially with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which will be held in less than 70 days. I am honored that I can be an Olympic Torch Relay torchbearer and a volunteer during the Olympics in August.
I started collecting stamps at a young age, especially those about sports events held in China and abroad. Among my collection are stamps from all the Olympics Games – stamps that, though small, reflect the Olympic spirit.
I use stamps to express my love for the Olympics
On the eve of the Barcelona Games in 1992, I came across an article in a stamp collecting magazine about the stamps of the Barcelona Olympics and those promoted in China’s bid for the 2000 Olympic Games. The beautiful stamps on the magazine pages were striking! From then on, Olympic stamps became a part of my life.
Nine years later, I graduated from high school and was accepted into a university. When the great news came that Beijing had won its bid to host the 2008 Games, the State Post Bureau called for suggestions on Olympic stamps. I was so excited and eager to express my views. That night I stayed up until 3 a.m. to write 13-pages of advice and the next morning I got up early to revise the draft. After some friends helped me perfect the letter, I sent it to the State Post Bureau.
In December 2001, the State Post Bureau accepted my suggestions and awarded me with a set of stamps commemorating Beijing’s successful bid to host the Olympic Games.
One of my suggestions was to release postcards at the closing ceremony of the Athens Games themed “Olympics from Athens to Beijing,” “The 29th Olympic Games” and “Emblem and mascots of the 29th Olympic Games.”To my great joy, my design for the stamps featuring the emblem of the Beijing Games was accepted and will be released alongside other Beijing Olympic stamps.
Another suggestion is to release a series of stamps that features Chinese Olympic champions. As soon as a Chinese athlete is crowned, the stamps will immediately be released nationwide. The series would reflect the combination of Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit and would be a symbol of this historic moment. Of course, the series has its limitations – I failed to take the Paralympics into consideration.
As the Olympics have drawn nearer and nearer, the aspiration to do more to promote the Olympics and the Beijing Games has filled my heart to the brim. In 2007, leaders of the Guizhou Association of Stamp Collecting made me editor-in-chief of Guizhou Stamp Collection, and it occurred to me that this newspaper was an ideal place to promote the Olympics. Fortunately, my idea was approved and the paper started to publish a series called “The Olympic Road of an Ancient Country”and another called “The One-Hundred-Year History of the Olympics,” which showed the eagerness of the Chinese people to host the Olympic Games and the development of the Olympic Movement.
In April 2008, the newspaper introduced a special column on the torch relay; in June, another special column named “The Day of the Olympics” will appear in the newspaper, which will be focused on stories of stamps and the Olympics. In July, “People of the Olympics” will express stamp collectors’ love for the Olympic movement. August will see the publication of “The Month of the Beijing Olympic Games” and September will be devoted to the Paralympics, telling stories about the Paralympics and introducing the development of the Paralympics. In October 2008, a piece called“The Year of Beijing Olympics” will focused on Olympic stamps and the great legacy left by the Beijing Games.
After what I have done for the Beijing Olympics, I’ve been honored to be selected as a torchbearer. My wish is to spread Olympic spirit and the culture of stamp-collecting through the Olympic Torch Relay. I will also give my all as a volunteer for the volleyball competition in Beijing this August.
Information taken from:
http://olympic.chinaassistor.com/2008/0715/My_stamps_reflect_my_love_for_the_Olympics_10411.html