“National Palace Museum’s Bird Manual Postage Stamps,” a set of 20 postage stamps issued by this Directorate in 1997, was well received among philatelists both in Taiwan and overseas. To meet popular demand, promote Chinese culture and introduce ancient Chinese art to the world, the Directorate has once again asked the National Palace Museum to suggest “Bird Manual” works created by palace painters during the Ching dynasty as the basis for 20 stamps. These will be released in separate batches. The first set of four stamps, scheduled to be issued on November 11, includes the yellow-headed parrot, the blue-winged parrotlet, the African-gray parrot and the king parrot. Two will have denominations of NT$5.00, one a denomination of NT$12.00 and the last a denomination of NT$25.00. Mr. Chien Sung-tsun of the National Palace Museum is in charge of planning the stamps, which are being designed by the Directorate’s staff painter Lee Kuang-chi and printed by China Engraving and Printing Works, R.O.C. in color deep-etch offset. There are a total of 60 page spreads in National Palace Museum’s Bird Manual collection. This Directorate has once again chosen 20 of these for five sets of four stamps. For aesthetic reasons, because the shapes of the stamps differ from the shapes of the paintings, exquisite parts of the paintings have been chosen for the stamps and removed from their original backgrounds. Visually striking stamps are the result.