1993-17M Stamps sheetlet for the 100th Anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong's Birth
This stamps sheetlet features $5 Renminbi stamps issued on December 26, 1993, with serial number 1993-17M. The total issuance was 37.2634 million sheets. The stamp dimensions are 52 x 26 mm, while the full sheet measures 82 x 137 mm. The full sheet is in pristine condition without yellowing.
Detailed Description:
Mao Zedong (1893-1976), styled Runzhi, was born in Xiangtan, Hunan province. In 1913, he entered Hunan First Normal School. In April 1918, he founded the revolutionary youth organization "New People's Study Society". Around the time of the May Fourth Movement, he began to engage with and accept Marxism, founded the "Xiangjiang Review", led patriotic student movements, and established the Changsha Socialist Youth League in 1920. In 1921, he represented the Communist Group of Hunan at the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1923, he was elected as the Secretary of the Central Executive Committee. After the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in 1924, he was elected as a candidate member of the Central Executive Committee at the KMT's First and Second National Congresses. He served as acting Minister of Propaganda for the Kuomintang Central Committee, edited the "Political and Legal Weekly", and organized the 6th Guangzhou Peasant Movement Training Institute. In November 1926, he became the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party for the Agrarian Movement. After the "April 12th" Incident, he led the "Autumn Harvest Uprising" on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, led the uprising forces to Jinggang Mountain, and established the first rural revolutionary base. After meeting up with the rebel forces led by Zhu De, they formed the Fourth Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Mao served as the Party's representative and Secretary of the Front Committee. In 1933, he was elected as the Chairman of the Chinese Soviet Republic; in January 1934, he was elected as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; in January 1935, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo at the Zunyi Conference. Later, on the march, a three-man command group consisting of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Wang Jiaxiang was formed, solidifying Mao Zedong's leadership position in the Red Army and the Party Central Committee. In October of the same year, the Red Army reached northern Shaanxi; in December, he was elected as the Chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In March 1943, at a meeting of the Central Politburo, he was elected as the Chairman of the Central Politburo and Secretary of the Central Secretariat. Subsequently, in all subsequent Central Committee meetings, he was continuously elected as Chairman of the Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Politburo. At the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in September 1949 and the First Plenary Session of the First National People's Congress in September 1954, he was elected as the Chairman of the People's Republic of China. In December 1954, at the First Plenary Session of the Second National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, he was elected as the Honorary Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. On September 9, 1976, due to illness, he passed away in Beijing.
The image shows Mao Zedong wearing casual attire - a plain white shirt, blue-gray pants, with his hand on his waist and holding a half-burnt cigarette in his right hand. A yellow straw hat stands at the foot of the city wall, depicting Mao Zedong as the son of a farmer, inspecting the country from north to south in the days of building the motherland. The designer aimed to portray Mao Zedong's elegance and poetical temperament during the prosperous and glorious period of the early 1950s. Upon closer inspection of the image, alongside Mao Zedong's handwritten poem "Liupan Mountain", an ordinary great figure is walking towards us.