1960 “The Birds of Communist Paradise” 中苏反好同盟互助条约签订十周年

This stamp is a glorious contradiction, making it not so different from the concept of communism itself. It actually commemorates 10 years since the signing of an alliance between China and the Soviet Union. If I may, allow me to transcribe what the Chinese are really saying to the Russians: “yeah you can send off as many of those little messenger pigeons as you want, the second your big noses are pointing in another direction we’re gonna hunt them down and cook us up some 黄山炖鸽. By the way, thanks for helping us build all those machine gun factories and nuclear weapons.” Of course the sino-soviet relationship had already gone off the rails at this point, but you gotta give the Chinese credit for playing cool/dumb until the very moment shit hits the fan.

1963 “You’re looking at the Huang Mountain” 莲花峰 迎客松 西海云潮

When browsing through stamps from the 60s, the propaganda slowly started to give way to natural scenes of China, such as these chilled out drawings of different parts of Huangshan mountain. The three I’ve got here are part of a larger series that features about eight or so different “scenic spots” at the mountain. My feelings towards the “scenic spots” regardless, I wish I coulda checked out Huangshan back in the day before the red hat brigades came marching in to take it over.

1964 “Silent But Deadly” 炼油

Still proud of their industry, it wasn’t hard to find more stamps featuring factories, refineries and other industrial buildings that might have fit well in a Super Mario level. China treated industry like a rapper who just topped the charts treats money…flaunt that shit like it’s going out style. But for China, industry never went out of style, factories are still growing as fast as the US trade deficit is, gobbling up the shit they manufacture in the process. I especially like how they put those red commie flags on top of the refinery. You know everyone gets their fair share of that oil. Just some get fairer shares than others.

1964 “Dam Invisible Friends” 新安水电站

According to the titles of the stamps, these two are images of the Xin’an River Hydroelectric Station. Unfortunately I tried searching for this structure on Wikipedia so that I could find the significance of it, and why it merits it not one but several stamps commemorating it, but was I couldn’t find an article about it. As we all know, if it ain’t on Wikipedia, then it sure as shuttlecock don’t exist. Just goes to show ya, China loves dams so much their making up imaginary ones just so they can put them on stamps.

1964 “Brothers From Other Mothers” 庆祝非洲自由日

After googling around I learned that African Liberation Day is the 25th of May. In the late 50’s and early sixties after most African countries got emancipated from their colonial overlords they all got together with some beers and strippers to celebrate. The whole lot of ‘em had such a blast that they decided to make it an annual thing. Or something like that. What I do know is despite China apparently wishing Africans well with the issue of this stamp, many Chinese still look down on people with darker melanin. You don’t even have to look farther than this very stamp to see it, I mean look at the way the Chinese guy is dressed, with a modern jacket, a Mao hat and even some snazzy sunglasses that I’m sure will come in handy when he turns around to face that giant ball of fire behind him. Poor black fella on the other hand is wearing nothing but goddamn bed sheets. What’s up with that? I don’t even think African tribal people wear that. The only possibility is that African Liberation Day has one hell of a toga party and only China is in on the secret. Also note how the Chinese guy is looking strait ahead, while the black guy is looking off, almost like he’s wondering what the hell he’s got himself into. Well my roman robed friend, you got yourself a sweet deal on some Chinese arms in exchange for whatever natural resources you’ve got left.

Filed under: dragons