The special stamp of "The Year of Nongyin" is the seventh set in the fourth round of Chinese zodiac stamps, a set of two stamps, named "National Fortune Changlong" and "Tiger Yun Auspicious" respectively.
Yangtze River Daily Wuhan Client News (Beijing-based reporter Ke Li) Recently, the #Year of the Tiger zodiac stamp was spat on the face full of sadness # on the hot search. The Yangtze River Daily reporter contacted the designers related to this set of stamps, and the other party said: The tiger image presented on the Zodiac stamp is based on the painter Feng Dayuan's original works, and adopts the glue engraving overprinting process to make it conform to the artistic expression form between the stamps.
On September 16, 2021, Feng Dazhong introduced the original draft of the special stamp drawing of the "Year of Nongyin".
"The original design of the tiger has a high head, a strong posture, a slightly open mouth, and a domineering posture; after many rounds of expert review, it has been repeatedly revised, demonstrated, and revised. The "Mountain Tiger" finally presented on the first stamp highlights the restrained temperament, rather than the domineering exposed. A designer, who did not want to be named, said so.
Feng Yuan, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and honorary chairman of the China Artists Association, previously designed the commemorative stamp of the 110th Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. On the evening of January 12, he frankly expressed his personal feelings to the Yangtze River Daily reporter: "The zodiac should pursue vivid and interesting and cute, paint spirituality, realistic painting tiger is difficult to be interesting, two is difficult to please, and three lack of beautiful associations." ”
Li Jinzhu, a member of the All-China Philatelic Federation and the sixth vice president, supported the zodiac tiger ticket this time. He said: The fourth round of zodiac stamps, after corresponding to the handwriting of huang Yongyu, Zhou Lingzhao, Han Meilin and other masters, embarked on another open idea. Through the painting of the tiger, the shape and divinity of the tiger are vividly depicted, and the overall shape of the first tiger is majestic, but the details reflect the thickness and warmth of the tiger, which is also related to the auspicious elements of the zodiac, sending auspicious Antai for the new year.
The tiger on the stamp is "full of sorrow"?
On January 5, the "Year of Nongyin" Tiger Zodiac Stamps were officially issued to the public, a full set of 2 pieces, the first one is called "National Fortune Changlong", which is planned to be issued 40.4 million pieces, and the second is called "Tiger Yun Auspicious", which is planned to issue 38.8 million pieces.
This is the 42nd consecutive year that China Post has issued zodiac stamps since 1980, and it is also the fourth round of Tiger Zodiac stamps issued by China.
Painter Feng Dazhong (right) attends the opening ceremony of the special stamp printing of China Post's "Year of Nongyin" on September 16, 2021.
China Post official website introduction: The image of the tiger in the special stamp of "The Year of Nong Yin" starts from the "real", gets the nature of the tiger, and carefully interprets the beauty of the tiger. The stamps continue the design concept of the fourth round of zodiac stamps, interpreting the concepts of "country" and "home".
On the day of the release, philatelic enthusiasts from all over the world competed to buy, and some citizens even waited in line at about 3 a.m.
But within two days, the online response changed dramatically. Some netizens complained that the tiger on the stamp was "sad", looked sick, and lacked the might of the mountain tiger. Some people think from the look of the finishing touch that the painter is a pessimist.
A well-known philatelic expert told the Yangtze River Daily reporter: As early as September 2021, this set of zodiac stamps has been publicly released, and it will be officially issued on January 5 this year. In the meantime for more than 3 months, why didn't everyone pick these problems? After the official release, the spit suddenly became a hot search.
Did you notice the stamp artwork before it was officially issued?
The philatelic expert believes that it is unlikely: zodiac stamps are of great concern to the world, especially the Chinese, as long as the artwork comes out, many philatelic fans will go to watch and comment on various. At present, the tiger in the first stamp is indeed painted mildly, and after netizens say "with a sad face", everyone looks closely with subconscious, and the more they look at it, the more they look like it. As for some people on the Internet saying that the tigress in the second stamp has tears in her eyes, this is purely over-interpreted and subjective.
Mr. Wang, a philatelic enthusiast, said: When the Year of the Tiger stamp was first issued, I thought it was very beautiful and wanted to collect large plates, but unfortunately I did not grab it. After the "sad tiger" statement on the Internet came out, I took a closer look, and the shangshan tiger in the first stamp was indeed not as majestic as the tiger in the usual impression, and after reading the spit of the mouth and tongue, I felt more and more that it was "full of sorrow".
"When this set of tiger tickets was first introduced, the response was good and it was sought after by collectors and philatelic enthusiasts. However, after the official release, the audience has expanded significantly, and ordinary people have paid more attention to personal intuitive feelings," said Li, a senior Tibetan friend of a university philatelic association.
Mr. Hua, a philatelic expert, said: For works of art, everyone's appreciation angle and personal aesthetic experience are different, it was originally a matter of opinion, and a thousand readers have a thousand Hamlets. Regarding this "sad tiger" statement, it belongs to "three people become a tiger", and the more you say it, the more everyone feels like it.
The author of the painting, Feng Dazhong, has been painting tigers for more than 50 years
The creator of the stamp drawing is Feng Dazhong, vice chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Artists Association, who has been painting tigers for more than 50 years and is known for his good at painting tigers with brush strokes. Experts who understand the design process say that stamps are square inch art, and it is very difficult to express a very fine composition in a few centimeters of the stamp width. The original creation of the painter is a look, and in the later stage, in order to meet the needs of engraving and printing, there will be changes.
Feng Dazhong's son, Feng Haitao, is also a well-known painter and currently teaches at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The Yangtze River Daily reporter was refused when he expressed his desire to interview Feng Lao. Asked if online public opinion was putting pressure on his father, he wanted reporters to contact the General Post Office directly.
On January 5, 2022, Feng Dazhong shared the journey of creating zodiac stamps at the launch ceremony of the special stamps of the "Year of Nongyin".
A friend who knows him well has introduced: Mr. Feng has been very low-key in recent years, and only accepted a small interview with postal professional media such as China Pictorial News before the official issuance of the Tiger Year Zodiac stamps; after the stamp was issued, he was currently only interviewed by his hometown media "Liaoning Daily".
According to the above media reports: Feng Dazhong is famous for his serious and elegant tiger paintings, and is praised by the industry as "the world's first tiger". In May last year, he received a phone call from the China Post Group inviting him to design a stamp competition for the "Year of Nong Yin". After several selections in the past works, a few paintings that were close to the stamp requirements were found, and a few drafts were drawn and sent to the stamp design department. After receiving the suggestions of the review experts, further modifications and improvements will be made.
The first stamp is based on Feng Dazhong's 1999 work "Wind and Rain Spring and Autumn" design of the mountain tiger, at first the tiger head is painted with its head held high, but it shrinks to the stamp to appear too small, and when modified, the high tiger head is slightly lower and the tiger's body is elongated, which is recognized by experts.
The second is from his 1995 painting "Waiting for the Moon". He originally painted 3 small tigers, which symbolizes the prosperity of his descendants. After removing a small tiger, the two tigers are slightly distanced to make the composition fuller and the white space more appropriate.
In June last year, Feng Dazhong took the drawings on a special trip from Liaoning to Beijing to consult with the heads of the stamp issuing departments, experts, responsible editors, etc. Since then, the postal department has organized several rounds of experts to repeatedly review and argue, believing that it is better to be domineering and not exposed and introverted. Thousands of hammers and repeated revisions, although the main content of the first draft is retained, many details are no longer the same.
Controversy helps spread philatelic culture?
Some Tibetan friends also believe that the controversial and widely concerned design of stamps may be a good thing for collection, which will help all sectors of society to pay attention to and spread philatelic culture.
The Yangtze River Daily reporter learned that postal insiders also had arguments. Some experts believe that the tiger's eyes look like this, as a work stroke, this year's tiger painting is very real; under the pen of many painters, the image of the tiger is varied, and not all of them are majestic.
Some industry insiders told the Yangtze River Daily reporter: The previous three-wheel Tiger Year zodiac stamps, mainly paper-cutting, folk fabrics, craft paintings and other images, were also spat at as "too ugly" when they first came out, but after the baptism of time, everyone felt that they were full of a strong sense of national art. This appearance of the image of realistic painting with a brush is a major breakthrough.
The first round of Zodiac Tiger stamps issued in 1986.
The second round of Zodiac Tiger stamps issued in 1998.
The third round of Zodiac Tiger stamps issued in 2010.
China Post has also issued a number of other tiger-themed stamps:
In 1979, China Post issued a special stamp of "Siberian Tiger", a set of 3 stamps, using traditional ink painting techniques, depicting the image of the Siberian tiger leading the neck and roaring, clinging to each other, and hunting food.
In February 2000, China Post issued a set of special stamps entitled "National Key Protected Wildlife (Class I)", the 9th of which is the Siberian Tiger, which shows the majesty of the Siberian Tiger's round eyes in a close-up shot.
In 2004, a set of 2 special stamps of "South China Tiger" was issued, which was also a gongbi drawing method, which did not deliberately show the "majesty" of the tiger in the traditional impression, and whether the tiger's expression was also "calm and melancholy"?
(Photos are from China Post)
【Editor: Zhang Ling】