Scott No: -
Serial number: 2023-9
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: June 1st, 2023
Denomination: 520 fen
Designer: Yuan Yishan
Size of stamps: 42 * 30 mm
Perforation: 13
Sheet composition: 10
Size of sheet: 235 * 123 mm
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

China Post scheduled the issuance of a set of special stamps themed Animation – The Nine-Colored Deer on June 1, 2023. The set contains 5 stamps, with their design themes named The Divine Deer Appears, Being Kind to All Creatures, Rescuing Someone from Calamity, The Divine Deer Falls into a Trap and Divine Power Dispels Danger respectively. The total face value of the complete stamp set is 5.20 yuan, and the planned circulation is 6.2 million sets.

In 1981, Shanghai Animation Film Studio adapted the story of Jataka of the Deer King (from Cave 257 of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang) into the animated film The Nine-Colored Deer. Qian Jiajun and Dai Tielang served as directors, and Pan Jiezi as screenwriter. Although the total runtime of The Nine-Colored Deer is only 24 minutes, the creative team designed over 200 scenes and created nearly 20,000 paintings. The film tells the story of a nine-colored deer that rescues a snake charmer who is drowning and on the verge of death. A greedy queen desires the deer’s fur to make clothes, so the king offers a heavy reward for the deer’s capture. Driven by greed, the snake charmer informs the king and helps arrest the nine-colored deer. Facing the arrows of the king’s army, the nine-colored deer recounts the whole story. Deeply moved, the king abandons the capture plan, while the snake charmer eventually drowns to death.

This set of stamps continues the design style of the animation series stamps. The images adopt the color scheme of Dunhuang murals and at the same time present the characteristics of meticulous heavy-color painting with line drawing and rendering on Korean paper, as seen in the original animated film. The first stamp depicts the scene where the nine-colored deer guides lost Persian merchants in a desolate Gobi desert; the second stamp shows the nine-colored deer being kind to all creatures, always rescuing animals in desperate situations and creating a carefree "animal paradise" with blooming flowers and luxuriant foliage; the third stamp portrays the snake charmer (who collects medicinal herbs) accidentally falling into water and being saved by the nine-colored deer, which carries him to the shore; the fourth stamp illustrates the snake charmer, who betrays justice for profit, informing the king and pretending to fall into water again to lure the nine-colored deer into an ambush; the fifth stamp presents the scene where the nine-colored deer emits divine light, turning the sharp arrows shot by the soldiers into ashes. This set of stamps was designed by Yuan Yishan and printed using the photogravure technique by Beijing Stamp Printing Co., Ltd.