Background

On 1 June 2005, the State Post Bureau will issue a five-piece set of special stamps, "Andersen's Fairy Tales", with a total face value of 3.80 yuan. The pictures on the stamps are entitled "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match-seller", and "The Ugly Duckling", respectively.

The year 2005 marks the 200th birth anniversary of the world-famous fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen. Born in 1805 in Odense, Denmark, Andersen wrote a lot of works including poems, plays and novels, but is best known for his 168 fairy tales. Sympathizing with the unfortunate poor and appreciating goodness and purity, Andersen depicted in his beautiful fairy tales the happiness, bitterness and sadness of human life, exposed the evils in the money-dominated society, mocked the rulers' arrogance and foolishness and their followers' disgusting flattery, and encouraged pursuit of freedom and a bright future. With rich imagination, vivid plots and simple language, his works are still read and told by adults and children all over the world and remain bright and dazzling in the treasury of world literature.

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