Written by: Qian Guohong, Shijiazhuang Daily
Posted on: October 03, 2018 | 
| 中文
Country female teacher stamp issued in China
In 1985, China decided that September 10th should be considered the National Teacher's Day, and since then it is an annual celebration held in the country. In the following year of 1986, the General Administration of Post and Telecommunication of China issued one special stamp, J131, to commemorate the day and to express the respect towards teachers from all over the country. The 8-cent par valued stamp had a simple pictorial design, composed of a blackboard, a lecture stage and a bunch of flowers. The elements covered the basic content of teaching work and reminded people of the arduous efforts which teachers devote to their profession.
As a matter of fact, China had issued a set of stamps for teachers as early as August 27th, 1947, the date when it is believed that Confucius was born. The whole set had four pieces, with content regarding the holy spiritual ideal of Chinese people. The first one was a portrait of Confucius, an adoption of the work of Guang Huinong, a painter from Guangdong Province, and the second one was the Apricot Altar of Dacheng Pavilion of Qufu Confucius Temple. The third stamp was Confucius's cemetery in Confucius’ Steles Forest and the forth one was the Dacheng Pavilion of Confucius Mansion.
Inspired by the first commemorate stamp for the Teacher's Day, quite a number of stamps and stamp-related souvenirs were published in places across the country on the same theme with the group image of teachers repeatedly presented. For instance, on the first Teachers’ Day, Beijing Stamps Company issued the souvenir cover with patterns of flowers, images of teachers and the inscription given by Deng Xiaoping, the highest leader of the country at the time, on the goals of China's education, i.e. “Education should be oriented towards modernization, the world and the future.”
The former General Administration of Post and Telecommunication of China issued a five-piece set protocol envelope, with postages in 1995, with the third piece dedicated to teachers especially. The Post Administration of Fujian Province issued a 2-piece set of postcards for the day, with each of them named as Devotion of Teachers and Paybacks from Students, and Like Weaving Silkworms and Harvesting Peach Trees: Teachers Never Speaking for Themselves. China Netcom Company promoted a set for two CNC IP cards during the Teachers' Day in 2000 with Confucius as the main content. On September 10th of 2001, China National Post Bureau issued a two-piece postcard set with postage named Respecting Teacher and Education, and with the two cards subtitled respectively as, Remembering teachers always while growing up and Appreciating teachers not merely on this Day.
But for collectors and fans, the most precious stamps on Teachers’ Day would include the following three special ones: 13-16 Senior Learning, J8-13 Primary Schools at Pastoral Areas and T9 Village Teachers. They were the presentations of images of male teachers, female teachers of Tibetan Ethnic people and female teachers of rural areas.
According to the statistics, the images presented on the stamps could be classified into two categories: contemporary and old educators, and personages who used to work in education sector.
Translated by Wu Jinying
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