【Stamp Collection】
Author: Dang Yuzhan
Among the children’s stamps issued by China Post, there are 4 sets of fairy tale stamps. The attractive charm in the square inch makes it a favorite of children.
On June 1, 1980, the special stamp “Fairy Tale – “Gudong”” was issued, with a complete set of 4 stamps and a secondary stamp with no face value. The 4 stamps plus secondary stamps are printed like miniature comic strips. The stamp features a cowardly rabbit, a mindless monkey and tiger, and a wise lion. The secondary ticket is a concise text description of this set of stamps. The first one, a ripe papaya fell into the lake, and the rabbit ran away in fright with a “gudong”. In the second one, the rabbit ran and yelled: “Gudong is coming!”, and other animals also ran. In the third one, the lion shouted to the running animals: “Don’t run around, go and find out what ‘gudong’ is first.” For the fourth piece, the animals went back to the lake to look for “Gudong”, and it happened that another papaya fell into the lake, and everyone realized that it was a false alarm. This fairy tale tells children that they should be good at thinking, investigate and study, and not follow blindly.
The “Andersen’s Fairy Tales” special stamps were issued on June 1, 2005, with a complete set of 5 stamps printed from right to left. The patterns are “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Daughter of the Sea”, “Thumbelina”, “The Little Match Girl” and “The Ugly Duckling”. This set of stamps is issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, the famous Danish fairy tale writer. Andersen’s fairy tales are rich in imagination, vivid in plot, simple and beautiful in language, and contain profound thoughts and philosophies.
On June 1, 2013, the special stamp “Little Tadpole Looking for Mother” was issued, with a complete set of 5 consecutive printings. The patterns are “meet Mr. Shrimp by chance”, “Mother Goldfish with big eyes”, “Mother Crab with white belly”, “Mother Turtle with four legs” and “I found my mother”. The familiar fairy tale “Little Tadpole Looking for His Mother” is the world‘s first ink cartoon produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1961. It is adapted from the fairy tale of the same name written by Fang Huizhen and Sheng Lude, and is based on the images of fish and shrimp created by painter Qi Baishi. In the story, the little tadpole who just wriggled in the pond didn’t know what his mother looked like, so he started looking for her. After they mistook shrimp, goldfish, crab and little turtle as their mothers one after another, they finally found their mother. This fairy tale tells children a profound truth: where there is a will, there is a way. In the film, the tadpoles are lively and lovely, like a group of innocent children. The five stamp patterns of “Little Tadpoles Looking for Their Mothers” are designed according to the pictures of the cartoon “Little Tadpoles Looking for Their Mothers”.
The above three sets of fairy tale stamps were issued by China Post as gifts to children on the International Children’s Day on June 1; Issued on August 8th, a full set of 5 consecutive prints. The patterns are “Grandma carp telling stories”, “Little carp looking for the dragon’s gate”, “Uncle Crab’s help”, “Little carp jumping over the dragon’s gate” and “Aunt Swallow delivering a message”. The story of “Little Carp Jumping over the Dragon’s Gate” comes from folklore. It was adapted and re-created by Jin Jin, a famous Chinese children’s literature writer. It was made into a cartoon of the same name by Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1958. This fairy tale tells children that they must be brave enough to overcome difficulties and work hard for their ideals in order to achieve their goals.
“Guangming Daily” (version 16, June 2, 2023)
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责编：董大正 ]