Scott No: 1190-93
Serial number: N82-85
Values in set: 4
Date of issue: June 26, 1974
Denomination: 32 fen
Designer: Li Dawei
Size of stamps:
40*30mm for N82, N85;
30*40mm for N83, N84
Perforation:
11*11.5 for N82, N85;
11.5*11 for N83, N84
Sheet composition:
50(5*10) for N82, N85;
50(10*5) for N83, N84
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

Numbered Stamps 82-85 "Barefoot Doctors" numbered stamps were issued on June 26, 1974. The set consists of 4 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Li Dawei, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. No. 82 and No. 85 measure 40 mm × 30 mm, perforation gauge 11 × 11.5; No. 83 and No. 84 measure 30 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11.5 × 11, with 50 stamps per sheet for all.

Theme of the Set

This set was issued to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the June 26 Directive, "Put the focus of medical and health work in the countryside." Barefoot doctors were grassroots health workers in rural areas at the time who did not leave production: they participated in agricultural production while preventing and treating disease for the villagers, took root in the countryside, and used Chinese herbal medicine locally for diagnosis and treatment, making up for the shortage of rural medical resources. The stamps select four typical scenes—prevention, house calls, gathering herbs, and treatment—presenting the working state of barefoot doctors rooted in the countryside and serving peasants, and recording the appearance of rural grassroots medical and health construction in the 1970s.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Prevention

In front of a farmhouse courtyard, with sunflowers growing luxuriantly, a woman barefoot doctor is vaccinating rural children; the children line up in order and cooperate with epidemic prevention, embodying the work of disease prevention and epidemic prevention in rural areas and the attention to children's health.

House Call

On a moonlit night, a barefoot doctor, with a medical kit on his back, a bamboo hat on his head, and a flashlight in hand, wades across a river to rush to a patient's home. Fearing no hardship on the road and regardless of day or night, he brings medical care to the door—a true portrayal of grassroots medical practice.

Gathering Herbs

Among the mountain trees, barefoot doctors go up the mountain together, holding tools to gather Chinese herbal medicines, relying on local medicinal resources and practicing the rural diagnostic and treatment approach integrating Chinese and Western medicine.

Treatment

At the edge of a wheat field, during a break from labor, a barefoot doctor performs acupuncture treatment on the spot for an old peasant working in the fields. Able to go down to the fields when the medical kit is set down and to treat patients when it is picked up, this embodies medical service going deep into the fields.

Artistic Design Features

The set adopts a plain poster style, with warm, rustic colors and compositions close to real rural scenes. The four stamps alternate horizontal and vertical formats and, in the order of disease prevention, house calls, herb gathering, and field treatment, completely link the daily work chain of barefoot doctors. The pictures are full of the flavor of daily life. It is a classic work on the medical and health theme among the numbered stamps.