Scott No: 531-535
Serial number: S43
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: September 10, 1960
Denomination: 40 fen
Designer: Lu Tianjiao
Size of stamps: 22*26mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 100(10*10)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

S43 "Patriotic Health Campaign" special stamps were issued by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on September 10, 1960. The set consists of 5 stamps, designed by Lu Tianjiao, printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory by photogravure, with gum applied to the back of the entire set. The uniform stamp size is 22 mm × 26 mm, perforation gauge 11.5, 100 stamps per sheet, layout 10 × 10, with a total face value of 0.40 yuan for the set. Circulations: Factory and Mine Hygiene 8 fen, 4.6 million copies; Eliminate the Four Pests 8 fen, 4.6 million copies; Pay Attention to Hygiene 8 fen, 4.6 million copies; Prevent Disease 8 fen, 4.4 million copies; Exercise the Body 8 fen, 4.4 million copies. The Patriotic Health Campaign was a mass health and epidemic prevention effort in New China, advocating improving the environment, eliminating disease vectors, preventing disease, and strengthening the body; this set is China's first stamp set themed on the Patriotic Health Campaign.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Factory and Mine Hygiene

The main subject is a worker in work clothes, with a simplified silhouette of ventilation and dust-control facilities in the background. Industrial and mining enterprises have concentrated populations and are prone to breeding dust and harmful gases; good workshop ventilation, dust control, and cooling are an important part of protecting the health of industrial workers. Below the design is a small group silhouette, embodying the implementation of health protection by all staff in the plant area.

Eliminate the Four Pests

The peasant in the design carries a sprayer on his back and holds a nozzle to spray chemicals, carrying out pest extermination work. The "four pests" referred to here are rats, sparrows, flies, and mosquitoes; large-scale extermination can cut off the transmission routes of infectious diseases and reduce the risk of epidemics, and it was the core content of the Patriotic Health Campaign at the time.

Pay Attention to Hygiene

The design depicts a woman wiping window glass, cleaning the home and keeping the environment clean. Paying attention to personal and household environmental hygiene is about cultivating hygiene habits at the level of daily life, reducing the breeding of germs, and implementing health work in every household.

Prevent Disease

A medical worker in white is examining a child, carefully inquiring and checking. New China vigorously promoted child health care, health screening, and vaccination, with prevention first, early detection, and early intervention, reducing the harm of infectious diseases to children and adolescents and safeguarding the health of the next generation.

Exercise the Body

An elderly person stretches his limbs and practices fitness exercises, with a calm and powerful expression. Beyond health and epidemic prevention, it advocates nationwide exercise and strengthening the physique, relying on one's own resistance to ward off disease, achieving disease prevention and physical strengthening, and building a complete health concept.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal format, and the five stamps unfold in sequence following the logic of disinfection of the working environment, household cleaning, medical prevention, and fitness for strengthening the foundation, completely outlining the system of the Patriotic Health Campaign. The composition follows a fixed paradigm: a single main figure above, paired with a long group silhouette at the bottom, making clear that this is a mass movement in which all the people participate. The style is concise and lively, with a decorative printmaking feel; each stamp uses an independent background color, with clear color distinctions.