Scott No: 991
Serial number: W9
Values in set: 1
Date of issue: May 31, 1968
Denomination: 8 fen
Designer: Sun Chuanzhe
Size of stamps: 54*40mm
Perforation: 11
Sheet composition: 35(5*7)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

Issued on 31 May 1968, the set consists of a single stamp, printed in photogravure, designed by Sun Chuanzhe and produced by Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size: 54mm × 40mm; perforation: 11.5; sheet composition: 35 stamps (5 × 7); face value: 8 fen; print run: 15 million.

Main Theme of the Stamp

In the 1960s, the American Black people's struggle against racial discrimination and for equal rights continued to develop. After the assassination of Martin Luther King in April 1968, Black struggles against violent repression spread rapidly to more than 160 cities across the United States. On 16 April 1968, Mao Zedong issued the "Statement Supporting the American Black People's Struggle Against Violent Repression", setting out his position in support of the just struggle of American Black people. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications subsequently issued this stamp, printing the content of the statement on the stamp together with the image of Mao Zedong waving from the Tiananmen Gate tower.

Stamp Design and Historical Context

Portrait of Our Great Leader Chairman Mao and the Last Paragraph (Excerpt) of the Statement

The stamp has a deep red ground. On the right is a photograph of Mao Zedong in a light-coloured Zhongshan suit, raising his hand in greeting to the crowd from the Tiananmen Gate tower, the photograph enclosed in a decorative gold border. On the left, the final paragraph of the statement is set in gold lettering, calling on workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals and all those opposing US imperialism throughout the world to take action, to voice support for the struggle of American Black people, and for the people of the whole world to unite more closely and launch a sustained and fierce offensive against the common enemy. Beneath this text, small lettering gives the title of the statement and the date "16 April 1968". In the lower part of the stamp appear the white face value "8 fen" and the "Chinese People's Postal Service" inscription in Mao's handwriting.

This was not the first statement Mao Zedong made on the struggle of American Black people. On 8 August 1963, he had issued the "Statement Calling on the People of the World to Unite to Oppose the Racial Discrimination Practised by US Imperialism and to Support the American Black People's Struggle Against Racial Discrimination". At that time, the American Black leader Robert Williams, then in exile abroad, wrote twice to Mao Zedong asking China to speak out; after the statement was published, Williams wrote an article comparing it to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. This second statement of 1968 was issued precisely against the background of Martin Luther King's assassination and the upsurge of Black struggles against violent repression throughout the United States.

Artistic Features of the Design

The stamp adopts a layout juxtaposing photograph and text, half image and half documentary excerpt, which is relatively rare among the W-series stamps. The deep red ground, combined with gold lettering and a gold portrait frame, is solemn and striking, while the white face value and postal inscription below create a contrast of light and shade. In the printing plate of 35 stamps per sheet, the stamp image and the text alternate left and right, with the compositions in adjacent rows mirrored in direction, producing a regular variation in layout. The sheet as a whole presents a symmetrical arrangement, which is one of the distinctive features of this stamp's layout.