Sunday 16 October 2011

Enter the Dragon (and flying horses)

If you were a stamp designer and the remit came in to produce three stamps for the National Exhibition of Industry and Communication, what would you put on the stamp?  Perhaps the above stamp, with its instruments of industry, no internet or ipads yet as this is 1958.  An attractive and clean design.  But wait a minute, what if there are two of you brainstorming to make this an exciting event. What about dragons?
Yes the Chinese people are riding the five-toed red dragon (once the symbol of emperors) over stormy seas
And my favourite, flying horses (possibly a symbol of speed and perseverance) with their riders carrying what I can only describe as widgets over the calm sea of industry.  The two Chinese stamp designers are Liu Shuoren and Wu Jiankun. Wu was greatly influenced by traditional Chinese painting and created other spectacular stamps.

I could not find what appeared in the exhibition and whether it lived up to the stamp images, apart from coming across a car message board photo requesting information on this:
The reply was  "Wonderful picture of the Haiyan (Sea swallow or petrel, a little bird), developed in Shanghai in 1958. Yes, as an alternative for the pedicabs. The car was exhibited at the National Exhibition of Industry and Communications in Beijing 1959. There are different sources describing the technical info: 248cc, or 400cc, or 579cc; 1-cylinder or 2-cylinder engine; 12hp; 75km/h or 80 km/h.  One source gives the Shanghai Bus Repair Corporation as manufacturer".  Not quite a dragon or flying horse but rather cute.

The mainland of Asia is the destination of  Sunday Stamps this week.

6 comments:

Lisa B said...

The stamps are lovely, personally I prefer the dragon and flying horses to the more technological desidn, maybe the dragon is the inspiration behind the invention.

viridian said...

Love the dragon stamps!
Thanks for participating - you always have such interesting stamps.

Bob Scotney said...

What's interesting to me is that a ouline of a blast furnace appears on the first and last stamp you've shown. I started my career in the steel industry and worked on a blast furnace for a while.

Postcardy said...

I really like the dragon and flying horses stamps.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

My favourite is the dragon stamp. I do think the Haiyan was based on a dragon - just look at the radiator grill. I'm sure it's breathing fire.

Dorincard said...

Nice "glorified golf cart", or Trabant-like mini car. :)