In Xingfu Village, Longgang Town, Yandu District, Yancheng, there is a septuagenarian who is extremely fond of collecting.
His collection is neither celebrity calligraphy and paintings nor stamp names, but Chairman Mao's portrait seals.
According to Zhang Dianqian, for more than fifty years, as long as he saw a new style of Chairman Mao's portrait, he would collect it at any cost.
So why is Chairman Mao's portrait so obsessive to him?
Most of the portraits of Chairman Mao are created with the image of Chairman Mao as the main body and the sites of revolutionary holy places such as Shaoshan, Jinggangshan, and Zunyi conferences as the background.
Some of the larger chapters will also have some words on the back, and the production unit and production time will be engraved on them.
The shape of the chapter is mostly round and pentagonal. There is no regulation on its own material, but most of it is made of copper or aluminum, and a few have gold and silver materials.
The weight varies, some small ones are only 1-2 grams, and the big ones can have hundreds of pounds.
This kind of medallion was very popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and some styles even sold 100 million pieces. Even when life was tight, most people chose to buy.
As a product of a special historical period, Chairman Mao's portrait seal has a certain collection and economic value.
The earliest portrait of Chairman Mao came from Shanghai in 1932.
At that time, Chairman Mao was the chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic, and the Shanghai underground organization created this kind of medallion more for propaganda purposes.
In the period of anti-Japanese resistance, in order to motivate the masses to actively resist Japan, Chairman Mao's portrait seal appeared more as a medal, such as Yu Yan and Yan'an Lingzifeng, the base area of the New Fourth Army in eastern Zhejiang, who designed this kind of medallion separately.
At the time, the medal was designed to honor some outstanding warriors, and was seen by many as a symbol of honor.
However, chairman Mao's portrait seals were really manufactured on a large scale nationwide around 1967 to 1972, and more than 10,000 kinds of portrait seals were produced in these five years, with a total of more than two billion pieces. This is just the official record.
At that time, almost everyone would wear Chairman Mao's portrait seal, from as little as one to more than a dozen.
There was once a soldier who wore more than 30 Chairman Mao medallions in military uniforms and military hats to give speeches, setting a record for wearing Chairman Mao's portrait badges.
In addition to the official sale of genuine medallions, some people, in order to make profits, specially manufacture shoddy fakes and sell them to foreign tourists in scenic spots and other places. There was even a "black market" for the chapter, where the chapter was exchanged for the chapter and illegal trade was carried out.
The large-scale manufacture of Chairman Mao's portrait seal meant that a large amount of metal was used in these insignificant places, which could not help but disappoint Chairman Mao.
Originally intended to encourage the masses with excellent work style by rewarding them, the large number of medallions now damages the interests of the state, deviates from the original intention, and forms a wasteful atmosphere in disguise.
Because the production of airplanes requires a large amount of aluminum, Chairman Mao threw out a humorous sentence "return my aircraft" to curb the atmosphere of xiangzhang manufacturing.
As soon as these words came out, the number of Chairman Mao's portrait seals was rapidly reduced.
By the end of the 1980s, almost no new medallions were mass-produced. That's why today's complete set of genuine portrait stamps is so difficult to collect and so expensive.
It is also difficult to collect complete sets of Chairman Mao medallions today, because most of the medallions are sold individually, and few people at that time would collect complete sets.
If there is a complete set, thousands of values are possible. Not to mention, collectors themselves have special feelings about their hard work to collect medallions, and whether they are willing to sell them is still a question.
However, if you just want to appreciate Chairman Mao's portrait, there are still many ways.
Many of the collectors of Chairman Mao's medals are mostly people with a sense of social responsibility, and almost all of them choose to exhibit their treasures to promote red culture.
In their own words, it is a pleasure that their treasures can be appreciated and recognized.
The old man in Front of Zhang Dianqian in Xingfu Village is one of the collectors who specialize in collecting Chairman Mao's portraits.
Now he is a septuagenarian, but as soon as he mentions Chairman Mao's portrait, his eyes suddenly light up.
He said that his fate with Chairman Mao's portrait began in the 1960s when he entered Hubei and enlisted as a soldier.
At the same time, most of the people who enlisted in the army had a medallion, and looking at the way they looked when they wore the medallion, Zhang Dianqian was extremely envious.
But Zhang Dianqian couldn't do anything, and when he came out as a soldier, he didn't bring much money with him, and he couldn't buy a medal.
So buying a piece of the elephant chapter gradually became an obsession rooted in Zhang Dianqian's heart.
Finally, in the second year of becoming a soldier, Zhang Dianqian received a 7 yuan allowance.
Of course, his first thought was to buy a piece of xiangzhang to wear, but then he thought about how he had to save some money to live in the future. Weighing it down, he still didn't buy it.
It was the third year of the army. Once, Zhang Dianqian passed a shop, and through the glass cover, he saw a fluorescent portrait seal. The light seemed to shine into his heart, making his eyes completely unable to move.
However, the price of the medallion is not cheap, enough for 3 corners.
He hesitated for a long time, looking at others who had their own but did not, gritted his teeth or decided to buy it.
According to him, when he bought the medallion, he really felt like he had received the most precious treasure.
From then on, as long as he saw that there was a medallion that he particularly wanted, he would choose to buy it.
Even after retiring from the army, this habit has been retained.
Because Zhang Dianqian was engaged in legal service work, he needed to travel between all parts of the country, so whenever he went to a place, he would take the initiative to inquire where Chairman Mao's portrait was sold, and if there was, he would take a look to see if there was anything he wanted.
Over time, there are more and more chapters.
At the beginning, the cost of buying a medallion was not very large, and it was scattered to buy a few pieces at a time, and it did not cost a few dollars. Later, most of the portrait seals themselves had them, so they could only pick up those "precious" medallions and buy them.
For example: "Dongfang Hong" (Lace Sea Sailing Oriental Red Medallion), "Swimming Medallion" (Lace Chairman Mao Swims the Yangtze River Portrait), these rare and famous portraits, but also to use three inches of uncorrupted tongue and the original owner a good grinding, in order to buy it.
At that time, I encountered one or two pieces of excellent quality, and the style was not there, even if it cost a few hundred yuan, Zhang Dianqian would bite his teeth and buy it.
Although I didn't earn much at that time, and I was very sad about money, I was satisfied when I saw that my collection was richer.
Most of the money in the family was used by Zhang Dianqian to collect Chairman Mao's portrait seals, as well as some porcelain and bronze statues.
Once, his wife, Yao Jinlan, broke the porcelain statue because she wanted to help wipe the porcelain statue, and Zhang Dianqian also put angry with her for three weeks.
Zhang Dianqian was obsessed with Chairman Mao's portrait and made the family have no savings, and his wife inevitably still had some resentment towards him.
Although there are some resentments, fortunately, the wife is still more reasonable.
Because Zhang Dianqian is also such a hobby, at least it does not hurt the body, his wife still supports Zhang Dianqian in most cases.
In the past few decades, Zhang Dianqian, with the support of his wife and friends, has collected more than 5,000 different Chairman Mao portraits and badges.
And these chapters were the painstaking efforts of Zhang Dian's previous life.
The largest collection in front of Zhang Dianqian is a giant statue with a diameter of 1.8 meters, made of aluminum, with a total weight of 205 pounds.
It took 20,000 yuan to buy it from someone else, and it took a lot of effort to send it home.
The smallest is only the size of a mung bean, and the weight of 0.25g is also aluminum, which according to the seller, this can be regarded as the smallest medallion in China.
These medallions of different sizes and styles are the result of Zhang Dianqian's painstaking collection over the years, and each of them has a deep affection for Zhang Dianqian.
Usually, when he was idle at home, Zhang Dianqian would always bring out some Chairman Mao portraits and savor the patterns on the chapters one by one.
Although his cultural level is not high, he will search hard to understand the stories behind these chapters, and over time, the stories he collects have been written into one book after another.
In July 2015, looking at the set of Chairman Mao portraits piled up there, Zhang Dianqian felt that there were some violent things, and he thought that these portraits deserved to be admired by more people.
Therefore, he found the village party secretary Wan Yiming and the village director Wan Hongbiao, and told them that they wanted to set up an exhibition hall for people to visit the portrait chapter and let people understand the red culture.
At that time, there happened to be an old clinic that could be used as an exhibition place, and the two leaders together was indeed a good thing, and it was decided to be rebuilt by the village as the cultural center of the Xingfu Village Committee.
During this period, comrades-in-arms Liu Shiping and Wang Chuanyu also provided a lot of help and helped find many new statues and statues.
After many removals and renovations, finally on July 21, 2016, the Xingfu Village Committee Cultural Center was established, which covers an area of 100 square meters.
In this small room, more than 5,000 Chairman Mao medallions of various periods and styles were displayed separately.
Thousands of medals record Chairman Mao's revolutionary course and constitute the historical picture of China's modern revolution.
With the help of his wife and friends, Zhang Dianqian very intimately printed out their own stories for each kind of portrait, and those who wanted to visit could quickly have more and deeper impressions on these portraits.
As soon as the cultural center was introduced, it attracted countless people to visit.
The reporter saw in the exhibition hall that the smallest diameter of these portraits is only 1 cm, the largest diameter is 20 cm, and from the appearance, there are side heads, front heads, full body portraits, busts, etc., and the materials are mostly aluminum, plastics, ceramics, etc. In addition, there are bronze statues of Chairman Mao, porcelain statues, wooden carved crafts and historical pictures in the exhibition hall.
Zhang Dianqian also became famous because of this, and soon many collectors contacted the old man to buy the old man's portrait badge at a high price.
If you sell them all, it is also a lot of income.
And many relatives and friends wanted him to sell, but after careful consideration, he still politely declined, and no one around him could understand him.
Zhang Dianqian was not impressed, saying: "Collecting so many Chairman Mao portraits and badges is not for the purpose of reselling them for profit, nor is it just a hobby, I think it is more about collecting the complex of a generation of great people, and we will continue to collect them in the future, and through the collection and exhibition of Chairman Mao's portraits and badges, we will commemorate the great achievements of this great man." ”
The cultural center of the Xingfu Village Committee, which was originally rebuilt, has now become a local red education base, and cadres, students and the masses of the people often visit the door.
On the morning of December 26, 2019, local people spontaneously visited the place to commemorate the 126th anniversary of Chairman Mao's birth.
Today, the old man in front of Zhang Dianqian is 76 years old, but as long as someone talks to him about Chairman Mao's portrait, his spirit is still strong and his speech is sonorous and powerful.
"In our time, it was fashionable to wear, hang, and give away Chairman Mao's medallions." Zhang Dianqian said.