Scott No: 1453-57
Serial number: T34
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: November 11, 1978
Denomination: 40 fen
Designer: Chen Chuanli
Size of stamps: 31*52mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 40(10*4)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T34 "New Look of the Water Town" special stamps were issued on November 30, 1978. The set consists of 5 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Cheng Chuanli, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 31 mm × 52 mm, perforation gauge 11.5, 40 stamps per sheet (10 × 4), with a total face value of 0.40 yuan for the set, each stamp with a face value of 8 fen and a circulation of 6 million copies. The set is in the form of a horizontal five-stamp se-tenant strip; the five stamps joined together form a complete long-scroll Chinese painting entitled Today's Water Town Is Especially Beautiful.

Theme of the Set

This set takes the Jiangnan water towns of the Taihu Lake basin as its creative prototype, displaying the brand-new appearance of Jiangnan rural areas after implementing the policy of "taking grain as the key link and developing in an all-round way," with scientific farming and agricultural mechanization steadily advancing. Jiangnan has dense waterways and has been a land of fish and rice since ancient times. The stamps successively present the farming chain of rice transplanting, sprinkler irrigation, seed selection, diversified operations, and delivering grain to the granary, recording the transformation of the water town from traditional farming to modern agriculture and embodying the development approach of simultaneous development of farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery. Each stamp bears a vermilion seal-script seal reading "Learn from Dazhai in the Water Town," indicating the theme of the times and depicting the beautiful picture of a new socialist countryside.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Mechanical Rice Transplanting

The picture shows two rice transplanters operating in an orderly way in the paddy fields, with neat, green seedlings and rivers, small bridges, and farmhouses arranged in picturesque disorder. Mechanical transplanting replaces manual planting, improving spring plowing efficiency; it is an important symbol of agricultural mechanization in the water town and represents an innovation in grain production methods.

Sprinkler Irrigation

The design presents sprinkler irrigation facilities operating in the fields, with water mist scattering and moistening stretches of farmland. Sprinkler irrigation technology saves water and is efficient, breaking free from the limitation of relying solely on gravity-flow irrigation from rivers and canals; it was a new farmland water conservancy technology promoted in the 1970s, ensuring crop water supply in the dry season.

Seed Selection

The design depicts farmers and agricultural technicians together carrying out improved seed selection, carefully picking fine seeds. Improved breed selection is the foundation of scientific farming; selecting fine seeds can increase grain yield and enhance crop stress resistance, and it is a key link in increasing agricultural production.

Five Trades Flourishing

The design presents the scene of diversified operations in the water town, with farmland, orchards, fish ponds, and livestock and poultry breeding integrated, and farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery developing in coordination, no longer relying solely on grain cultivation, embodying the direction of diversified rural economic development.

Happily Delivering Public Grain

On the river, sailboats are loaded with grain and the fleet travels downstream as the people of the water town transport public grain; the water surface is broad, and the distant mountains are in light ink. Waterways are the traditional transport channels of Jiangnan water towns; delivering grain to the granary after the harvest is the concluding portrayal of abundant grain and a bumper agricultural harvest.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal long stamp format. The five stamps joined together form a complete ink-and-color Chinese painting, and when separated each stands independently as a scene; connected, they form a complete narrative. It uses the Jiangnan landscape painting style, with plain, elegant brushwork and misty rain; the water town's rivers, boats, fields, and distant mountains have soft layers, combining the artistic conception of Chinese painting with the publicity theme. The photogravure printing restores the layers of ink wash in place, with warm, fresh tones. There is no souvenir sheet for this set. It is a classic se-tenant special stamp set on the rural theme of the JT period.