A set of philatelic items including a gold portrait of late Chinese
leader Mao Zedong, 13 silver stamps and 38 hand-made, silk commemorative
envelopes that feature the former leader's selected calligraphic poems have been
issued in Beijing and Ruijin, East China's Jiangxi Province.
The first of their kind in China, the collection is released to mark the 60th
anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-45) and
the 70th anniversary of the successful arrival of the first groups of the Red
Army, led by the Communist Party in September 1935, in Northwest China's Shaanxi
Province. This was the history-making Long March (1934-35), a major strategic
movement of the Red Army which succeeded in reaching the revolutionary base area
in northern Shaanxi after traversing 11 provinces and covering 25,000 li, or
12,500 kilometres.
The collection is jointly created by the China Society of Mao Zedong Poems
Studies, All China Federation of Philatelists and China Post, and issued under
the supervision of Mao Anqing and Shao Hua, son and daughter-in-law of Mao.
"Mao Zedong is the founder of New China. But he is also known as a
philosopher, poet and calligrapher who cherishes a deep love for Chinese art and
culture in all his lifetime," said Mao Xinyu, grandson of Mao, at the issuing
ceremony in Beijing, during which one set of stamps and envelops has been given
to the China Stamp Museum for its permanent collection.
The set of gold and silver stamps and silk commemorative envelops are
packaged in a wooden box along with a block of 10 older paper stamps featuring
portraits of Mao which were issued in the 1950s.
The collection is released at home and abroad. And there are only 30,000
sets, according to He Huoren, vice-director of China Society of Mao Zedong Poems
Studies.
