History of CPA

In the nineteen thirties there had already been philatelic societies in Hong Kong. The oldest one was the Hong Kong Philatelic Society. Since the idea of collecting stamps was brought from Britain and Europe, the members of the society were mainly westerners. Therefore the official language of the society was English.

However, there were a lot of Chinese philatelists came to Hong Kong from mainland China after the war. When they had settled down, they wanted to join the philatelic activities in Hong Kong in order to maintain their interest. But most of them did not know English, it stopped them to participate. Their enthusiasm drove them to get the idea of forming another philatelic club, in which they could communicate in Chinese, for themselves.

On 27^th January, 1946, these group of philatelists met at Tai Tung Restaurant and came to a conclusion that they should advertise their desire in the newspaper and invite all the men of the same path to join.

On 24^th February, 1946, there were twenty-eight people presented in the meeting. They were Chan Kong Fung, Fong Yip Kwong, John B. Shaw, Hg Ying Chiu, Loo Yuen Pok, K.S. Mackw, Leong Wai Man, Fok Fai Kwong, C.C. Lin, Hung Hin Shun, Ng Pa Ling, Kwok Yick Tat, Au Pak Kwan, T.M. Shaw, Fok Yiu Chuen, Barnabas Lee, Chow Man Chi, Chan Kan, Sit Hung Nien, Henry Ho, Yel Tze Pilng, Chiu Chi Wan, Chan Cheuk Ken, Yel Chi Kin, Lung Chen, Ng Hin Kui, Huang Manner, and Li Shek Cho.

They all agreed to form a new philatelic society, which was called “China Philatelic Association”, and that the communicative medium should be Chinese. They also decided to publish philatelic journals.

A committee of eleven members was elected. Mr Chan Kong Fung was appointed the Chairman of the committee and Mr Fong Yip Kwong the Vice-chairman. The other committees were John B. Shaw, Hg Ying Chiu, Loo Yuen Pok, K.S. Mackw, Leong Wai Man, Fok Kai Kwong and C.C. Lin. They worked efficiently and employed a lawyer to proceed the registration and thus China Philatelic Association was a legal organization in Hong Kong.

They also applied a post box in General Post Office as the corresponding address for the association. The earliest meeting place was at 3^rd Floor, 34 Conaught Road. The second meeting was held on 11^th March. There was even a stamp auction taken place in the meeting on the 1^st April.

The first volume of “China Philatelic Journal” was published in July 1946. The name of the journal was shortened, for easy memorizing, as “Philatelic Light” from the third volume. There were 33 volumes till 1962.

There were no official first day covers for the new issued stamps before 1962. Thus the first day covers printed by the association issued 16 years ahead of the official ones.

During these fifty years, the printing of first day covers has never been suspended. All the new issued stamps were corresponded with the China Philatelic Association first day covers. There have already been 201 sets of covers printed till June 1998. All these covers were deeply appreciated by the collectors.

The first stamp exhibition was held in a hotel in Central on 24^th to 25^th January, 1948. From then onward, there had been 20 exhibitions organized by the association. Besides holding exhibitions on it own, there were also join stamp exhibitions with the Hong Kong Post Office, Commercial Press (HK) Ltd., stamp clubs of the schools and colleges, and other philatelic societies of China, Macau and Hong Kong.

Besides philatelic activities, there were parties and commemorative activities for Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. There was a picnic held every year to promote the friendship of the members.

China Philatelic Association is a non-mercenary organization. We aim at advocating philately, researching about stamps collecting, exchanging philatelic materials among members, and making friends with other philatelic clubs.

We work at popularizing philately, organizing different kinds of stamp exhibitions and seminars, cooperating school stamp clubs, developing youth philately, and promoting and introducing philatelic culture to the public society. We also encourage and help our members to build up their own exhibits, arouse the philatelic interest of our members, motivate the teenaged members to participate in the completions, and develop the ability of philatelic appraisal of our members.

24^th February 1946, was the foundation day of China Philatelic Association. It has passed through half a century and it also encountered many difficulties. It had been developed quite well in the first ten years. There were more than 1300 members, some of them came from different countries such as Britain, U.S.A., Japan, India, and countries of South East Asia. Exhibitions were held quite often and journals were published regularly. Many famous philatelists joint the association to show their respect and support. They were Cheung Pau Chi Chun, Lo Siu Lo, Chan Chi Chuen, Kwok Chek Fong, Sek Siu Tung, Suen Kwan Ngan, Ng Fung Kwong and Cheung Man Kwong etc. In the late fifties there were nearly three thousand members.

Due to the reformation of the society, the change of the personnel of the association, and the moving of the meeting place, there was a decline for a long period until the eighties. Then new enthusiastic members joint the committee. The C.P.A. Bulletins were published again. The newly organized C.P.A. stamp exhibitions aroused the passion of the members to participate the activities actively.

Organizing activities such as seminars and stamp exhibitions, grouping of stamp clubs of schools, and promotion of youth philately are activated again. The success of the development of the affairs in the association depends on the support and cooperation of the enthusiastic members, and also the concern of the Hong Kong Post Office and the public society.

Now there are about 1400 members. The China Philatelic Association Bulletin is published monthly. The bulletin contains the news of our activities, philatelic information and research. It is free for our members.