The 83-year-old stamp collector reels off stories behind 600 of the stamps he has treasured since 1950. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Sun Yin, an 83-year-old native of the city Quzhou – located in East China's Zhejiang province – started collecting postage stamps diligently back in the 1950s and as a result he has become somebody of an authority on philately when it comes to the story of modern China.

In 1982, he founded the Juhua Association with other stamps collectors and in 1998, after retiring, he began to devote himself to stamp collecting. As a result, he has collected all the stamps issued in China after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, or CPC. In the community in which he lives, Sun decided one day to choose more than 600 stamps from his collection – representing the history of the Party as it led the Chinese revolution to victory – and reeled off a series of anecdotes about the stamps.

"The stamps tell the history of the Party and the stories help Party member cadres and the public to  understand the valuable experience accumulated in the long-term struggle, as well the formation of the glorious traditions of the CPC," said a spokesman of the community.