China Post is to issue a set of 2 commemorative stamps entitled The 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Youth League of China on May 5, 2022. The designs of the stamps are respectively named “Following the Party Forever” and “Pledging to the Party to Make My Country Strong”. The denomination of the stamps is 2 yuan, and 7.3 million sets of such stamps are planned to be issued.

The Communist Youth League of China (hereinafter referred to as CYLC) is a people’s group organization of forward-thinking young people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC); it is a school for vast numbers of young people to learn through practice about socialism with Chinese characteristics and about communism; it is an aide to and reserve force of the Party. The May 4th Movement breaking out in 1919 when China as a nation was on the edge of peril prepared ideological and organizational conditions for the establishment of the CPC and CYLC, opened a new era of the Chinese youth movement, and marked a new epoch that the Chinese youth group stepped onto the social and historical stage. Under the direct concern and leadership of the CPC, the first National Congress of the Chinese Socialist Youth League was held in Guangzhou from May 5 to May 10, 1922. With the convening of the first congress of the CYLC, the Chinese Socialist Youth League realized complete unity in both ideology and organization, and became a national progressive youth league consistent with the CPC in terms of political program and goals. As a result, the Chinese Youth League was officially born, which is a milestone in the history of the development of the Chinese youth movement. In the past 100 years, the Chinese youth movement has been vigorously advancing. All the League members have consistently played the role of a fresh driving force and the spearhead in the periods of the New Democratic Revolution (1919-1949), the socialist revolution and reconstruction (1949-1978), the reform, opening up and socialist modernization, and the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

This set of stamps is designed by Chang Shana and Zhang Lei. Chang Shana, a famous art and design educator, art designer and once the head of the former Central Academy of Arts Design (currently the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University), is the main creator of the emblem of the CYLC. Zhang Lei, an associate professor of the Arts and Science Research Center of Tsinghua University, has designed many sets of special and commemorative stamps such as “Teachers’ Day”, “Beginning of New Millennium: Stride into 21st Century”.

The first stamp “Following the Party Forever” takes the Party emblem and the League flag as its main body, with the League flag closely following the Party emblem, and is complemented with the figure “100” and the silhouettes of young men from all walks of life, underlining the political orientation of the CYLC closely following the CPC. The second stamp “Pledging to the Party to Make My Country Strong” takes the emblem of the CYLC as its main body, complete with the figure “100” as well as the bullet train, rocket, skyscrapers and other elements, symbolizing the lofty sentiments and aspirations of all League members for making contributions to building a prosperous China and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The stamps are printed by the Anti-counterfeit and Secret-keeping Technology Printing Company of Henan Province with the technology of offset intaglio.

The set of stamps will be available for 6 months at designated postal outlets nationwide, online mall of China Philately (https://jiyou.11185.cn), the mobile app of China Post, the WeChat Mall for philatelic products in the official WeChat account and the WeChat mini program of China Post Group. To present more information about the stamps, China Post will release the digital contents through the WeChat mini program “Encyclopedia of China Philately and Stamps”, where philatelists can learn more about the stamps via its AR function.