Who’s the most famous person in world history?
Now, I’m a western born and educated British man, so I go to things that are familiar to me.
Jesus Christ, Julius Caesar, The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Lionel Messi…
Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift. Does it get any more famous than that?
Who knows?!
But, to try a different dimension to mass appeal then perhaps you need to look at the world’s most populous nation.
Because it’s quite hard to avoid Mao Zedong in China.
Chairman Mao might have a word to say about that. This statue is in Lijiang and is one of the few surviving from the era of the Cultural Revolution.
And that includes the nation’s stamps.
The three ages of Chinese stamps
China has seen its fair share of turmoil in the modern age.
And its stamps reflect that.
They can be divided into three broad eras:
- Imperial, which includes stamps issued by occupying foreign powers and domestic Qing issues,
- The Republican era that follows, and includes fracturing states, warlords, civil war and revolution, and finally,
- The People’s Republic of China from 1949 until the present day.
Imperial China was a very hierarchical society. And communism is - theoretically - not.
But, one figure dominates the country’s international image: Mao Zedong.
Mao only left China twice, both times to go to the Soviet Union, but his image was the face of the nation to the world for decades. Here he is at Stalin's 70th birthday celebration.
As George Washington is to the US, so Mao is to China, the father of the nation.
Mao on stamps
Mao first appeared on a stamp in 1944.
The early Mao stamps are often quite rudimentary, they were produced as China was ripped apart by invasion then civil war.
You’ll notice that was well before the foundation of the PRC.
China had been invaded by the fascist Japanese regime. The communists allied with the nationalist republican government to fight them.
And, as China was slowly and painfully liberated (it’s hard to overstate the horrors of the Japanese invasion), the stuff of life had to go on. And that included postal services and stamps.
So the earliest Mao stamps were regional issues that reflected the fact that the Communist Party of China was winning the liberation struggle and was starting to put its own machinery of government in place.
Once the country had been freed, the nationalists and communists fought a civil war.
As we know, the communists won. The remnants of the nationalist forces fled to Taiwan, where they set up a rival state that for many years - still to some people - claimed to be the rightful government of all of China.
This 1947 stamp celebrates the expulsion of the Japanese from Taiwan and the island's return to China, but the flag that's been planted is that of the RoC, the Republic of China, which now only flies in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Chairman Mao was on a stamp proclaiming the People’s Republic of China from Tiananmen Square.
After that, things went fairly quiet on the Chairman Mao front. He did appear on stamps as you would expect. But not that many.
Other revolutionary heroes did too, including Sun Yat Sen, who was the chief revolutionary who helped to overthrow the Qing government (and no communist).
Historical Chinese figures like the author Kuang Han-Ching and Confucius were commemorated.
People from outside China too. Stalin is on a few. As is Lenin. Marx. Engels.
Sun Yat Sen, the first post-imperial leader of China was still celebrated in the People's Republic of China and his image runs through modern Chinese philately.
Perhaps the most commonly depicted person on Chinese stamps isn't a named individual but an idea.
Many PRC stamps feature idealised depictions of Chinese workers, peasants, and soldiers.
Idealised depictions of workers, soldiers and peasants are common on PRC stamps.
However, in the 1960s some of the most interesting and important Chinese stamps were issued and many of them feature Mao.
These issues were linked to what western historians call The Cultural Revolution, and in China at the time was called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
And here Mao issues come into their own, both in number and aesthetically.
The Cultural Revolution is controversial to this day, both inside and outside China.
Some commentators now see it as something like a low-level civil war.
Here, it's Mao's words that star, in this release to celebrate the 1967 50th anniversary of his 'Talks on Literature and Art'.
Its stated intent was to renew the Chinese Revolution against counter revolutionaries.
Some historians say it was an attempt by Mao to cement personal power over China.
It was chaotic and often horrifically violent.
And it produced an enormous amount of propaganda.
Including stamps.
The Mao stamps from this era are highly collectible and usually very striking - strong, simple designs in bright, communist red.
And many featured Mao as the benevolent leader of the revolution and carried references to his work, which was extremely widely distributed during the period of the Cultural Revolution.
It did come to an end.
Mao composing poetry on this 1967 issue.
But only when Mao died, in 1976.
He was shown on a stamp issued in 1977 to commemorate the first anniversary of his death.
And much less often after that. His legacy is debated in China to this day.
Two of China’s most valuable stamps ever come from this period.
Both are errors or withdrawals.
The most valuable Chinese stamp ever, because the whole country is not red.
The catchily named, 8f 40th Anniversary of Establishment of Jing Gangshan Revolutionary Base from 1967 (sensibly more often known as "Big Blue Sky") has sold for $282,000.
And, The Whole Country is Red, which made the mistake of showing Taiwan but not colouring it red sold for $2 million in 2018.
Because the stamps from the period are so vibrant and carry so much meaning, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a popular specialist period for collectors.
Some more of Mao's words celebrated alongside the man himself in 1968.
Collecting rare Chinese stamps today
The market for Chinese stamps exploded in the early 21st century.
After a short correction period it seems now to be back on the up again.
We hold a wonderful collection of rare, historic Chinese stamps, some of which you can see here.
