Scott No: 886-890
Serial number: S71
Values in set: 5
Date of issue: November 30, 1965
Denomination: 40 fen
Designer: Sun Chuanzhe
Size of stamps: 26.5*36mm
Perforation: 11.5*11
Sheet composition: 50(10*5)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

C71 "Women on the Industrial Front" special stamps were issued on November 30, 1965. The set consists of 5 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Sun Chuanzhe, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 30 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11.5 × 11, 50 stamps per sheet (10 × 5), each stamp with a face value of 8 fen, with a total face value of 0.40 yuan for the set, and a circulation of 6 million copies each.

Theme of the Set

After the founding of New China, large numbers of women stepped out of the home and devoted themselves to socialist industrial construction, playing an important role in various industrial posts and practicing the era's call that "women can hold up half the sky." The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued this set, selecting the three major industrial categories of textiles, machinery, and construction, paired with the subjects of study and militia, to present in three dimensions the spiritual outlook of women workers rooted in their posts, diligent in study and striving upward, and defending the country, and to praise the diligent and dedicated elegance of women builders.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Textile Industry

The design shows two women textile workers working side by side at an operating table in the workshop, wearing work caps, with focused expressions, cooperating in operating the textile equipment. The textile industry was the industry that absorbed the most women workers at the time; the picture embodies the daily routine of women textile workers—careful, rigorous, and holding fast to the production frontline.

Machinery Industry

The woman operator in the design wears work clothes and an apron and is machining parts beside a machine tool, skillfully controlling the equipment, displaying the appearance of women entering heavy-industry processing posts, devoting themselves to machinery manufacturing, and studying production techniques.

Construction Industry

The design shows a woman construction worker wearing a safety helmet and holding a signal flag, standing on a construction site with scaffolding in the background, expressing the scene of women participating in infrastructure projects and devoting themselves to the construction of cities and factories.

Studying Chairman Mao's Works

The design shows two women workers sitting together in their spare time studying jointly, with books spread out on the table, embodying the era's appearance of industrial workers persisting in theoretical study and raising their ideological consciousness outside of production.

Women Militia

The woman militia member in the design wears work clothes and holds a rifle, with factory buildings behind her, expressing the image of women workers on the industrial front grasping production with one hand and combat readiness with the other, being both workers and soldiers, and guarding the fruits of production and construction.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a vertical stamp format, with full compositions and plain, vivid figures, in the typical realistic poster style of the 1960s. The five stamps extend from production posts to study and militia, progressing layer by layer and completely shaping the group portrait of women on the industrial front. The photogravure printing has warm, bright colors, natural figures' expressions, and simple workshop and construction-site backgrounds, highlighting the laborers themselves.