On Thursday China issued a new set of 128 stamps that use the top 100 Chinese family names and 28 historical surnames.

The stamps, launched in Beijing, feature a red knot, which symbolizes unity and luck, in the center and a totem design of each name.

A 1982 government survey was used to select the most common surnames, which account for nearly 90 percent of the population.

The historical names include figures such as Yandi (Red Emperor) and Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), said Zhang Wenbin, standing vice president of the Chinese Culture Research Institute, who sponsored the issue.

"People surnamed Li (plum) make up about 8 percent of the Chinese population," he said.

Designer Wang Dayou said the design is mainly based on two historical characters. One is the hieroglyph thought to have been used at the time of Yu the Great, regarded as the first ruler of the Xia Dynasty (c. 2100-1600 BC), the other is the character used in the Chu State during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

"Each part of the design can be found in historical records or on unearthed cultural relics," noted Wang, who has studied the history of Chinese surnames and totem culture for around 30 years.

He said surnames evolved from the totems of ancient tribes, usually an animal, plant or natural object. These totems served as the emblem of a clan or family and were revered as its founder and ancestor. Nowadays about 3,000 surnames are in common use.

(China Daily November 19, 2004)