Scott No: 1574-81
Serial number: T45
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: January 25, 1980
Denomination: 184 fen
Designer: Liu Shuoren
Size of stamps: 30*40mm
Perforation: 11.5*11
Sheet composition: 50(10*5)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T45 "Peking Opera Facial Makeup" special stamps were issued on January 25, 1980. The set consists of 8 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Liu Shuoren, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 30 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11.5 × 11, 50 stamps per sheet. The predecessor of this set was the Special 62 "Peking Opera Facial Makeup," which was planned for issuance in the 1960s but ultimately never saw the light of day. Sixteen years later, the designs were redrawn, finalized, and issued. It is New China's first special stamp set devoted to Peking Opera facial makeup.

Theme of the Set

Peking Opera facial makeup is a plastic art unique to Peking Opera, relying on colors, patterns, and makeup types to identify a character's identity, character, and temperament, and has long had the characteristic of "conveying spirit through form and using color to signify the person." This set selects eight household-known traditional opera characters, covering loyal and brave veteran generals, bold outlaws, mythological heroes, and chivalrous gallants. Through facial makeup art, it conveys the aesthetic and cultural connotations of traditional opera, popularizes among the public the symbolic meanings of facial makeup colors and types, and is a milestone classic among opera-themed stamps.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Meng Liang

The image is Meng Liang's facial makeup, drawn from the story of the Yang family generals, belonging to the red broken-flower face type. Red signifies loyalty and bravery, and the patterns are lively; Meng Liang is bold and fierce in character, a classic deputy general image among the Yang family generals.

Li Kui

The image is Li Kui's facial makeup, taken from plays such as Li Kui Visits His Mother, a black cross-gate flower face. Black represents uprightness and roughness, and the eyebrow patterns and eye sockets are exaggerated, highlighting Li Kui's upright, fiercely righteous, rash, and sincere outlaw-hero temperament.

Huang Gai

The image is Huang Gai's facial makeup, from The Gathering of Heroes, a red old-man face. The red face symbolizes loyalty and bravery, and the white eyebrows are elongated and drooping, expressing the appearance of an elder. It corresponds to the story of the bitter-flesh stratagem in the Battle of Red Cliffs, praising Huang Gai's character of loyally serving the country and sacrificing himself for it.

Sun Wukong

The image is Sun Wukong's facial makeup, from Havoc in Heaven, belonging to the pictorial face unique to monkey images. The face is painted with an inverted peach-shaped pattern, with a pointed mouth and upturned nose, wearing a purple-gold crown and pheasant tail feathers—lively and playful. It is a unique mythological facial makeup in opera, highlighting Sun Wukong's agile, unruly, and vastly powerful qualities.

Lu Zhishen

The image is Lu Zhishen's facial makeup, from Wild Boar Forest, a white three-tile face. The brow peaks are thick and heavy, and the patterns are concise; the white face does not represent treachery but here expresses the monk's rough and bold temperament, corresponding to Lu Zhishen's chivalrous, loyal, and fiercely righteous hero image.

Lian Po

The image is Lian Po's facial makeup, from The General and the Minister in Harmony, a red old-man face. The makeup type is dignified and steady, with weighty lines, and red manifests loyalty and bravery, depicting the veteran general Lian Po's style of correcting his mistakes and cherishing the country.

Zhang Fei

The image is Zhang Fei's facial makeup, from The Meeting at the Ancient City, belonging to the black butterfly face. Black governs fierceness, and the eye sockets and eyebrow patterns spread out like butterfly wings; it is a wide-open face with an unrestrained momentum, expressing Zhang Fei's brave, irascible, straightforward, and loyal character.

Dou Erdun

The image is Dou Erdun's facial makeup, from Stealing the Imperial Horse, a blue flower three-tile face. Blue symbolizes unruliness and strong chivalry, and a double-hook weapon pattern is painted between the eyebrows, echoing his specialty in using double hooks. It is a representative facial makeup of a greenwood hero.

Artistic Design Features

The set adopts the fine-brush heavy-color painting method, with a white background setting off the facial makeup and no superfluous background interference, so that the visual center is entirely focused on the facial makeup types. The colors follow the traditional expressive rules of facial makeup: red for loyalty and bravery, black for uprightness, blue for unruliness, and white for roughness. The eight makeup types are all different, gathering many classic types such as the cross-gate face, three-tile face, old-man face, pictorial face, and butterfly face, with clean, neat lines and rich, bright colors. The design faithfully restores the traditional paradigm of stage face painting, combining opera professionalism with stamp visual appeal. It is the benchmark work among domestic facial makeup stamps.