A new series of stamps entitled ‘The Tang Dynasty's Three Hundred Poems' is stirring up a wave of excitement in a market that has remained pretty quiet for almost two decades. By applying modern technology, stamps now can be listened to. Let's follow our reporter Liu Yan to discuss the world's first multimedia stamp.

The new stamp contains enough information to recite famous poems from the Tang Dynasty.

With the size of a notebook, the stamp contains as many as 25,000 words. It takes hours to listen to all the poems the stamp recited.

Touching the stamps with a special pen-shaped device, allows a chip in the pen to recite some of the greatest poems from the Tang Dynasty, the flower of Chinese literature.

Yao Wei is from the company.

"When the Tang Dynasty's Three Hundred Poems stamp collection made its debut in East China's Anhui province, it was inaugurated by a visually-impaired person. The device is highly significant," "The Aigo pen ushered in a new era where a stamp can speak. The pen is able to tell the stories behind the stamp in the form of human voice."

The pen reader is not actually new. In 2008 it was used as part of the official intelligent tour system of the Olympic Museums Travelling Exhibition. But as the product is now being used with printed material it means that a book, which traditionally could only be read, can now be listened to as well. It also means publishers can now store huge amounts of information and offer readers an unprecedented multimedia reading experience.

Yao Wei further explains.

"It is significant that our system can work on a publication as small as a postal stamp. In the printing business, the techniques required to print stamps is the most demanding, even more so than bank notes. There are only three printing houses in China that can produce postage stamps, but many more can print bank notes. It takes up to four different techniques, high temperatures and soaking, to produce a postal stamp. To be able to put our water mark on a stamp under such a severe process is the best endorsement of the quality of our product."

Yao Wei says that the technology used has huge potential especially in museums, the anti-counterfeiting sector, and for education purposes. For instance, in most museums the current infrared system that is used for electronic guides is considerably difficult to install and has limited capacity. But with the Aigo pen system, there only needs to be a tiny, invisible watermark by the displayed object, which is cheap and easy to apply, and the data storage is hugely increased.

While in Europe this technology, which has been around for a while, is usually limited within the field of education, Aigo believes their product has far more potential in the market.

"Pfizer's Viagra was first invented as a medication for heart disease, but was later found to help treat impotence. Coca-cola was first patented as medicine but only become popular after being advertised as a soft drink. These stories tell us the importance of finding the right market for a product, and the importance of librating minds."

However, the new product has not gone without criticism. Some have complained about the limited number of publications that support the pen. Although the watermark is low in cost, it takes extra procedures, time and agreements to get them printed in books. Therefore there have been worries that these publications are unlikely to be mass-produced.

Unsurprisingly, Yao Wei disagrees.

"Some companies simply look at the mainstream market for their products to be mass produced. But my target sector is the high-end market where quality is valued above quantity. Today's market can be broken down into more segments than ever before. The ‘one size fits all' era has gone. We are focusing on providing a personalized service for our specific clients. The 80-20 rule works very well. I call it ‘injection service.'"

Yao's company plans to produce more multimedia stamps like this one. So far, they are working on two more stamp sets themed "the World's famous musicians" and "Peking Opera."

Will the pioneering multi-media stamp ignite a trend? Let's keep a close watch.