Scott No: 1281-85
Serial number: T18
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: September 6, 1976
Denomination: 40 fen
Designer: Zou Jianjun
Size of stamps: 52*31mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 40(4*10)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T18 "Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers Go to College" special stamps were issued on September 6, 1976. The set consists of 5 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Zou Jianjun, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 52 mm × 31 mm, perforation gauge 11.5, 40 stamps per sheet (10 × 4), with a total face value of 0.40 yuan for the set, all five stamps at 8 fen, and a circulation of 8 million copies each.

Theme of the Set

In the 1970s, open-door schooling was promoted, and institutions of higher learning admitted worker-peasant-soldier students through mass recommendation. This set completely links the whole process of students' enrollment, theoretical study, on-site practice, scientific research tackling, and graduation and return home, embodying the era's orientation of "education must be revolutionized" and the integration of education with productive labor, and recording the historical appearance of workers, peasants, and soldiers entering institutions of higher learning and receiving education.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Going to College Full of Pride

The picture shows the lively scene of college orientation: worker-peasant-soldier students, with backpacks and shoulder bags, gather joyfully with the teachers and students welcoming them. Above the picture hang banners reading "Education Must Be Revolutionized" and "Warmly Welcome Worker-Peasant-Soldier Students to College," and red flags and red flowers set off a warm atmosphere, displaying the moment the students step into the college gate full of longing.

Revolutionary Theory Sets the Course

In the picture, a member of the workers' propaganda team holds a document and organizes the students to study theoretical works together, with the quotation "The working class must lead everything" posted on the wall. The students study revolutionary theory in the classroom, placing theoretical study first and making clear the political direction of schooling.

The Great Classroom

The picture shows a scene of on-site teaching at a construction site: a worker master wearing a safety helmet is explaining engineering knowledge to the students, with drawings and building components placed to one side. It embodies open-door schooling—leaving the classroom and carrying out teaching at the production site, treating the construction site as a classroom and learning practical skills from frontline laborers.

Climbing the Peaks of Science

The picture shows a computer laboratory, where students gather around a domestically made electronic computer, operating the equipment and recording data, delving into science and technology in the laboratory, striving to master modern scientific knowledge, and advancing toward the peaks of science.

Be a Laborer with Socialist Consciousness and Culture

The picture depicts students returning to the countryside after graduation and receiving a warm welcome from the villagers, who hold seedlings, melons, and fruits and cluster around the students. It implies that after completing their studies the students return to the production frontline, take root at the grassroots, and become laborers with consciousness and culture.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal long stamp format, with a coherent narrative that successively unfolds the complete storyline of enrollment, study, on-site teaching, scientific research, and graduation and return home. All stamps use a poster style, with full and high-spirited figures and bright, intense colors; red, orange, and green are the main tones, with a strong flavor of the times. The photogravure printing has bright color blocks and clear layers in the figures' expressions and scene details. There is no souvenir sheet for this set. It is a highly representative special stamp set on the theme of science and education of the JT period.