Scott No: 426-437
Serial number: S35
Values in set: 12
Date of issue: September 25, 1959
Denomination: 96 fen
Designer: Sun Chuanzhe, Han Xiangqi, Lu Tianjiao, Wu Jiankun, Wan Weisheng
Engraver: Kong Shaohui, Gao Pinzhang, Sun Hongnian, Tang Linshen
Size of stamps: 22*27mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 100(10*10)
Printing process: Engraving
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

S35 "People's Commune" special stamps were issued on September 25, 1959. The set consists of 12 stamps, printed by engraving, designed by Sun Chuanzhe, Lu Tianjiao, Han Xiangqi, Wu Jiankun, and Wan Weisheng, engraved by Kong Shaohui, Sun Hongnian, Tang Linkun, and Gao Pinzhang, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 22 mm × 27 mm, perforation gauge 11.5, 100 stamps per sheet (10 × 10), with a total face value of 0.96 yuan for the set; all at 8 fen, each with a circulation of 8 million copies, without gum throughout the set.

Theme of the Set

In 1958 a wave of the people's commune movement swept across rural China. The people's commune was the organizational form of rural unity of government and commune at the time, combining production, commerce, culture and education, militia, and collective living services. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued this set on the first anniversary of the birth of the people's commune, selecting twelve aspects to completely present the envisioned picture of the commune combining industry, agriculture, trade, education, and military affairs with supporting collective welfare facilities, recording this exploratory course of rural social construction.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

The People's Commune Is Good

With farmland, factory buildings, and the red sun as the background, the design pairs with the words "The People's Commune Is Good." It is the general lead of the entire set, making clear the theme and setting off a vigorous, upward atmosphere of the times.

Industry

The design depicts commune members engaged in handicraft and small-scale processing production, displaying the appearance of the commune setting up commune- and brigade-run industries and developing production on the spot.

Agriculture

The design shows a woman commune member carrying a bundle of wheat, with farmland and poultry in the background, representing grain production and highlighting agriculture as the basic industry of the people's commune.

Commerce

The design shows the commune's supply and marketing service scene, with commune members managing goods, embodying the commune's supporting commercial circulation and facilitating the daily material supply of commune members.

Education

The design depicts commune members reading and studying, carrying out literacy campaigns and cultural popularization, embodying the commune's emphasis on mass cultural education.

Militia

The design shows the image of militia members, holding rifles and standing guard, representing the militia organization and its functions of local security and production protection.

Canteen

The design presents the commune's public canteen, with kitchen staff serving meals, embodying collective dining—a landmark welfare facility of the commune at the time.

Nursery

The design shows childcare workers caring for young children, with the children lively and lovely, liberating women's labor power; it is an important link of the commune's collective welfare.

Home for the Aged

The design depicts elderly people sitting and resting, expressing collective elderly care so that elderly commune members receive care.

Health Care

The design shows grassroots medical personnel diagnosing and treating the masses, embodying the commune's supporting clinic and safeguarding commune members' health nearby.

Recreation

The design presents the masses carrying out literary and artistic activities, playing instruments and singing, enriching commune members' spare-time cultural life.

Combining Industry, Agriculture, Trade, Education, and Military Affairs

The design gathers a group portrait of commune members from all trades, concentrating on embodying the people's commune's construction concept of "the five-in-one of industry, agriculture, trade, education, and military affairs."

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal format and engraving; the lines are clean and lively, drawing on the decorative style of woodcut New Year pictures and folk prints. The twelve stamps form a system of their own: first listing industry, agriculture, trade, education, and military affairs separately, then successively presenting supporting welfare such as canteens, childcare, elderly care, medical care, and recreation, and finally concluding with a comprehensive group portrait, with a clear narrative logic. Each stamp has its own color scheme, with plain, passionate tones and concise, generalized figures, full of rustic flavor. All stamps in the set have the same circulation; it is a set of grand scale and extremely strong imprint of the times among the old Ji-te stamps.