STAMPS YOUNGER
China Mail 2500 Years Old
Confucius (551-479 B.C.) once wrote that the influence of a righteous man traveled even faster than imperial postal service. He referred to the pony stations, which were in service more than 2500 years ago, carrying official mail. Ming Emperor Yung Lo (1403-1424 A.D.) reigned at the beginnings of trans-China private postal service. But these first postal systems functioned without the postage stamp, which first appeared in 1878.
China's first stamp was designed by B. Morse, an American serving with the Customs Service, which then ran the postal service. With the termination of dynastic rule came the first Republic of China stamps in 1912 bearing the portrait of the founding father of modern China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
A biplane flying above the Great Wall was featured on China's first air mail issue on July 1, 1921.
Other issues have featured heroes of the Republic, Chinese artistic treasures, Chinese history, flora and fauna, and scenes and items depicting the attainments of modern life.
Multiple stamp sets illustrating panoramic or continuous scenes have their origin in antiquity. Chinese scroll paintings were the precursors to the motion picture travelogue. An artist might illustrate an entire voyage or adventure on a single scroll, which was unrolled as the story progressed. Scroll painting also permitted long, narrow pictures of a single item or scene.
Stamp collecting is a popular hobby on Taiwan, counting more than 150,000 resident adherents. The China Philatelic Society (P.O. Box 18, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC) is the umbrella organization for numerous clubs. The Society publishes a monthly bulletin, and clubs have their own newsletters. Six major newspapers have stamp columns.