China Post is to issue a set of four commemorative stamps entitled The 120th Anniversary of Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s Birth on August 22, 2024. The designs of the four stamps are respectively named Diligent Work-Frugal Study Experiences, Years of Military Service, Spring of Science, and Reform and Opening-up. The denomination of the whole set is 4.80 yuan. Seven million sets of the stamps and 880,000 sheets for layout 2 are planned to be circulated.

Comrade Deng Xiaoping is recognized by the whole Party, the entire military and the people of all ethnic groups in China as an outstanding leader enjoying high prestige, a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, military strategist and diplomat. He was the chief architect of China’s socialist reform, opening up and modernization, the trailblazer of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the principal creator of Deng Xiaoping Theory. The first design of the set of stamps is called Diligent Work-Frugal Study Experiences. At the age of 16, Deng went abroad to work and study in France, accepted Marxism, and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) there. From then on, he had been working hard for the cause of the CPC and the people with unwavering commitment and perseverance for over 70 years. The second design is Years of Military Service. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, Deng resolutely implemented the strategic decisions of the CPC Central Committee and Comrade Mao Zedong. He took on both military and political roles, shouldered heavy tasks and responsibilities. At the critical position of the overall strategies and the forefront of the struggle against enemy, he always braved danger and difficulty, and secured victory through surprise moves. The third design is Spring of Science. In 1978, the CPC Central Committee held the national science congress, during which Deng made the important remarks that science and technology are productive forces, ushering in a “spring” for the country’s science circles. The fourth design is Reform and Opening-up. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Deng stood at the height of the requirements of the times, the development of the country and the expectations of the people, worked with the Party’s central collective leadership, and led the CPC to make a series of major decisions, pushing forward the reform and opening up and socialist modernization gradually.

Through oil painting portraits, this set of stamps vividly presents Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s glorious career and charismatic demeanor. High screen ruling with photogravure technology used in stamp printing makes the images stereoscopic and the facial expressions distinct in details. In printing, much importance is attached to adjusting the contrast of light and shade, and rich facial modelling is created through chroma, thus enabling rich texture and exquisite tableaus in the overall effect.

This set of stamps is collectively created by the team from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (painted by Lin Mao, Sun Cong, Hao Ninghui, Zhang Yibo, Xu Jiafu, Xia Libin, and Cai Haokun), edited by Gan Zhige, and printed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Limited with photogravure technology.

The set of stamps will be available for six months at designated postal outlets nationwide, the 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.