Scott No: 1333-36
Serial number: J15
Values in set: 4
Date of issue: April 25, 1977
Denomination: 32 fen
Designer: Zhang Kerang, Li Yinqing
Size of stamps: 60*27mm
Perforation: 11.5
Sheet composition: 35(5*7)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

J15 "National Conference on Learning from Daqing in Industry" commemorative stamps were issued on April 25, 1977. The set consists of 4 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Zhang Kerang and Li Yinqing, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 60 mm × 27 mm, perforation gauge 11.5, 35 stamps per sheet, with a total face value of 0.32 yuan for the set, all four stamps at 8 fen, and a circulation of 7 million copies each.

Theme of the Set

The National Conference on Learning from Daqing in Industry opened in Daqing on April 20, 1977, and was a grand gathering of considerable scale on New China's industrial front. The congress called on the national industrial front to learn from Daqing's campaign spirit of self-reliance and arduous struggle, popularize Daqing-type enterprises, mobilize the broad masses of workers and staff to increase production and efficiency in their posts, speed up industrial construction, and strive toward the goal of the four modernizations. This set was issued in conjunction with the congress, and its four pictures progress layer by layer, displaying the upsurge of learning from Daqing on the industrial front and carrying forward the Daqing spirit and the Iron Man spirit.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Mass Criticism of Revisionism

The main subject of the design is a worker raising his arm and shouting, with the slogan "Persist in the basic skill of starting from the 'Two On' [On Practice and On Contradiction]" in the background, echoing Daqing's tradition of relying on On Practice and On Contradiction to guide production and construction and expressing the theme of the industrial front correcting its thinking and adhering to the correct direction.

Working Hard for Socialism

The design depicts Daqing oil workers on a snowy, windy wilderness, holding their drilling posts in the severe cold, with wind and snow filling the sky and the derrick standing tall. The accompanying text reads "Working hard for socialism is justified, working hard for socialism is meritorious, working hard for socialism is glorious," praising the oil workers' struggling posture of fearing no severe cold and working hard in a practical way.

Strive to Popularize Daqing-Type Enterprises

Above the design is the image of the Iron Man Wang Jinxi raising his arm forward, and below is a contingent of workers from industrial fronts in various places, holding high slogans and striding forward, with red flags spreading out. It implies that factories and mines across the country benchmark against Daqing, strive to become Daqing-type enterprises, and spread Daqing's experience throughout the entire industrial system.

A Bright Future

The design gathers builders from different posts, including steelworkers, coal miners, women textile workers, drilling workers, and scientific and technological intellectuals, with industrial facilities such as factory buildings, derricks, and power transmission towers in the background, symbolizing that workers of all trades and professions are united with one heart and march together toward the grand future of socialist modernization.

Artistic Design Features

The set uniformly adopts a horizontal long stamp format and a poster style, with high-spirited and powerful figures and intense, weighty colors; the red-orange tones are full of the era's appeal. The four stamps correspond in sequence to ideological guidance, hard work in the campaign, popularization, and the vision of the four modernizations, with a coherent and complete narrative. The photogravure printing has strong light-and-shade contrasts and full, vivid figures' expressions. There is no souvenir sheet for this set. It is a representative commemorative stamp on the theme of learning from Daqing in industry of the JT period.