Different from ours, the Western dragon is supposed to be a fire-breathing, blood-sucking, pestilent beast. Embittered by these features of the Western dragon, some senseless Chinese scholars several years ago asked their fellow citizens to forget about the Chinese dragon as the symbol of China, though unofficially.

Symbols help create a sense of belonging for or to something, be it a school or a nation. For this reason, the dragon is important, as is its depiction on the stamp.

But China Post's Circulation Department Manager Feng Shula overstated it by calling the dragon on the stamp "a perfect combination of history and the modern times". Maybe the artist was preoccupied with the connotations his drawing would carry, for the dragon on the stamp is supposed to be the confident face of the country.

Unlike the bald eagle for the United States and the bear for Russia, the dragon is not a real animal. Without clear definitions and instructions of what a dragon stands for, it is difficult for an artist to draw an imaginary creature that will please most Chinese citizens.

It's time we asked whether we need an official symbol for the nation, be it a dragon or a panda, to act like spiritual glue that can hold us together.

And a stamp, certainly, doesn't qualify for that.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily.

(China Daily 01/07/2012 page5)