Scott No: 1597-98
Serial number: J56
Values in set: 2
Date of issue: April 7, 1980
Denomination: 68 fen
Designer: Chen Xiaocun
Size of stamps: 30*40mm
Perforation: 11.5*11
Sheet composition: 50(10*5)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

J56 "Raise Health Standards, Advocate Quitting Smoking" commemorative stamps were issued on April 7, 1980. The set consists of 2 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Chen Xiaocong, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 30 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11.5 × 11, 50 stamps per sheet.

Theme of the Set

April 7, 1980 was World Health Day, with the theme of raising health standards and advocating quitting smoking. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued this set to promote to the whole society the harm of tobacco to the human body, advocate abandoning the smoking habit, and safeguard the physical and mental health of the public. It is China's only commemorative stamp set on the theme of tobacco control. Both stamps bear the emblem of the World Health Organization, echoing the publicity theme of this World Health Day.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Smoking Is Harmful

With a gray-blue background, the main subject is an anatomical diagram of the human lungs and heart, with a lit cigarette lying horizontally below, its smoke curling and invading the heart and lungs, intuitively showing the harm of tobacco invading the respiratory and circulatory organs and warning that smoking damages one's own health.

Advocate Quitting Smoking

The design uses a split-style abstract human face: on one side, a gray area depicts a figure with a cigarette in the mouth, representing the poison of tobacco; on the other side, a red-and-green area holds fresh flowers, symbolizing healthy and beautiful life, corresponding to the World Health Organization slogan "Smoking or health, the choice is yours."

Artistic Design Features

The set adopts a simple, warning-style publicity cartoon style, with strong color contrasts. The first stamp relies on medical imagery to directly reveal smoking's harm to the internal organs; the second uses a half-and-half symbolic composition to contrast good and evil, health and harm. The pictures are direct in meaning with a prominent warning effect. It is a highly representative set on the theme of public health.