# 3895k - 2005 37c Chinese Lunar New Year: Dog

Issue Date: January 6, 2005
City: Honolulu, HI
Quantity Issued: 50,000,000
Printed by:  American Packaging Corporation for Sennett Security Products
Printing method:  Photogravure
Perforations:  Serpentine die cut 10 3/4
Color:  Multicolored

 

The U.S. Postal Service recognized the contribution of Asian-Americans to U.S. holiday traditions with a twelve-year series of Lunar New Year stamps. In 2005, the U.S. Postal Service gathered all the Lunar New Year designs onto one souvenir sheet.

 

Asian-Americans played a vital role in the history of this country, in spite of discrimination. In the mid-1800s, a cycle began in which people from one Asian country would come to the U.S. to work in mines, on farms, in fisheries, and on the intercontinental railroad. After a while, however, a backlash would take place, and further immigrants from that country would be denied entry. Then, another country’s people would fill the need for cheap labor until they, too, were excluded. So it went for the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, and Indians.

 

U.S. immigration laws continued to discriminate against Asians until 1965. More recently, refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos have helped make the Asian-American community one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population.

 

The Lunar New Year souvenir sheet honors the part Asian-Americans continue to play in the development of this country and in the diversity of its culture.