Giant Panda portraits

Under Edmund Chen's colored pencils, the pandas come alive on the commemorative stamps. Photos by Sam Yeo / for China Daily

A Singaporean celebrity has designed a set of commemorative stamps featuring two star pandas that will be the island's latest residents from China. Valerie Ng talks to Edmund Chen about panda mania.

Chinese audiences know him as the hero of television serials imported from Singapore in the 1990s. Edmund Chen charmed a generation of TV viewers who became addicted to soap operas from Singapore.

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Now Chen is in the limelight again, and the China connection this time is two of Singapore's newest residents - specially flown in on a four-hour flight from Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu.

Giant panda Kai Kai and his female companion, Jia Jia, arrived in early September and are set to live in their brand new home for the next 10 years.

Singapore has welcomed its pandas in various ways, but featuring them in a set of commemorative stamps and first-day cover is a particularly attractive memento.

The man behind the cute and artistic designs is the same Edmund Chen, an ambassador for Singapore Post, or SingPost.

"Designing panda stamps is the dream of many designers," says Chen, in a phone interview. "They are not just any pandas, they are star pandas!"

Under his colored pencils, the adorable and lovable pandas come alive. They appear mischievous and active - rather than the stereotypically laid-back creatures they are often portrayed as.

The stamps show endearing close-ups of Jia Jia; and of Kai Kai perched on a tree while Jia Jia gives him a boost.

The differences between the pandas are obvious if you look closely.