Scott No: 1716-1717
Serial number: J67
Values in set: 2
Date of issue: September 25, 1981
Denomination: 28 fen
Designer: Zhang Kerang
Size of stamps: 40*30mm
Perforation: 11*11.5
Sheet composition: 50 (5*10)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

J67 "Centenary of Lu Xun's Birth" commemorative stamps were issued on September 25, 1981. The set consists of 2 stamps, printed by photogravure, designed by Yao Zhonghua, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 40 mm × 30 mm, perforation gauge 11 × 11.5, 50 stamps per sheet.

Theme of the Set

Lu Xun was born on September 25, 1881, and 1981 marked the centenary of his birth. Lu Xun was a great modern Chinese writer, thinker, and revolutionary. Using his pen as a blade, he wrote a large number of profound literary works and essays that had a far-reaching influence on modern Chinese literature and intellectual enlightenment. This set commemorates the centenary of Lu Xun's birth, honoring his intellectual and literary contributions and carrying forward his upright and unyielding spirit. It is an important commemorative stamp set for a cultural celebrity.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

Lu Xun in His Youth

The design depicts Lu Xun in his youth, with a clear, handsome face and a resolute gaze. The background is the wupeng boats and distant mountains of the Shaoxing water town, echoing Lu Xun's early hometown experiences and expressing his youthful stage of resolving to seek and explore and to search for a path to save the nation.

Lu Xun in His Later Years

The design depicts Lu Xun in his later years, with a thin face and a deep, resolute expression. The background is blade-like rocks and upright, vigorous pines and cypresses, symbolizing his unyielding fighting spirit and corresponding to his later stage of using essays to criticize current abuses and persist in ideological struggle.

Artistic Design Features

The set adopts an oil portrait style, with weighty and expressive figures, strong contrasts of light and shade, and calm, deep tones. The two images, youth and later years, are set in contrast, showing the course of Lu Xun's lifelong intellectual exploration. The background imagery is concise and restrained, without complicated piling up, highlighting the figure's own spiritual temperament. It is a set of considerable weight among Lu Xun-themed stamps.