China 'The Whole Country Is Red'

A stamp to celebrate total victory

In January 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, a People's Daily editorial called on revolutionaries to seize power from the "capitalist roaders." Over the following months, revolutionary committees replaced the existing party and government leadership in China's provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. On September 7, 1968, the People's Daily and the PLA Daily jointly hailed the establishment of revolutionary committees in all of them, "except for Taiwan Province."

To mark the moment, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications planned a single commemorative stamp called "The Whole Country is Red." The design shows a worker, a peasant and a soldier holding copies of Quotations from Chairman Mao, set against a sea of red flags and cheering crowds. Above them is a map of the People's Republic, painted bright red, with the gold characters 全国山河一片红 across it.

Every part of the map was red except Taiwan, which was merely outlined. Taiwan was then, and remains, under the control of the Republic of China, but Beijing regards it as Chinese territory. A stamp proclaiming the whole country red, while leaving out the one place Beijing most wanted to claim, was a serious political problem.

Half a day

The stamp went on sale in November 1968. Sources disagree on the exact day: an English-language reference and a 2014 collectibles report give November 24, while a Chinese online encyclopedia gives a scheduled issue date of November 25 and says sales were suspended on November 24, then elsewhere says it was first issued in Beijing on November 25.

It had been on sale for less than half a day when an editor at the China Cartographic Publishing House, the state map publisher, noticed that the map was wrong and reported it to the ministry. Post offices across the country were ordered to stop selling the stamp and return every copy. A small number could not be recalled in time, and a few had already been sold, which is why any exist in private hands.

The official reason for the withdrawal was not Taiwan. According to an English-language reference citing a British stamp magazine, the authorities said the Paracel and Spratly Islands had been left off the map and the borders with Mongolia, Bhutan and Myanmar were drawn incorrectly; a Chinese online encyclopedia also names the missing Xisha and Nansha (Paracel and Spratly) islands. Press reports since have generally described Taiwan as the error that doomed it.

The designer who feared prison

The stamp was designed by Wan Weisheng (萬維生), one of several designers commissioned to make stamps during the Cultural Revolution. Some English sources render his name as Wang Weisheng.

Four decades later he was in the room in Hong Kong when one of his stamps set a record. "For a long time I was really worried that I would be jailed," he told the AFP news agency in November 2009. "Officials told me that it was a really big mistake, but in the end nothing happened."

Big red, little red, and fakes

Collectors distinguish two versions. The standard stamp, the one that went on sale and was withdrawn, measures 30 by 40 millimeters according to a Chinese online encyclopedia, which lists it as "Wen 14" with a print run of 1,200,000, printed in photogravure in sheets of 50 (ten by five), perforated 11.5 by 11 and gummed. That encyclopedia names the Beijing Stamp Printing Works as printer; an English-language reference names the China Cartographic Publishing House. Collectors nickname it the "Little Patch of Red," and a Chinese stamp expert quoted in 2018 estimated that about 300 exist.

The larger version, the "Big Patch of Red," was prepared but never issued because it was felt to be too large, according to a 2014 collectibles report; a Chinese state media site described it as twice the size of the original. It carries the same uncolored Taiwan. Counts of survivors vary: a 2012 report said eight were produced, five of them in mint condition; a 2014 report said around ten survive; and a 2018 report said there are nine. The highest prices on record for the stamp have been paid for this larger version.

Because the stamp is so valuable, forgeries are common. A Chinese guide to identification says genuine stamps were printed in photogravure on firm stamp paper, with solid red and yellow areas that show no halftone dots under magnification, including the yellow silhouette of Tiananmen on the map. Counterfeits are typically offset-printed on shiny coated paper and show dots of color. Genuine perforations gauge 11.5 by 11 and are even and round, the gum is thin and fine, and under ultraviolet light the red and yellow inks glow bright where fakes look dull.

A record-setter in Hong Kong and Beijing

Chinese auction records show the standard stamp's rise in the 1990s. In October 1996 a vertical pair sold at auction for 302,500 yuan, and in April 1997 a block of four with margin brought 748,000 yuan. On October 1, 1997, a complete unused sheet of 50 was exhibited for the first time, at the China Stamp Exposition in Guangzhou.

On November 1, 2009, a large-version example sold at auction in Hong Kong to an unidentified Asian buyer for HK$3.68 million, reported as US$475,000, a record for a Chinese stamp. Six standard-size stamps of the same design sold the same day for a combined HK$2.93 million. On May 21, 2012, a mint large version sold in Beijing for $1.15 million (a 2018 report gives the 2012 record as 7.3 million yuan), described by the auction house manager as the best of the eight; and on January 12, 2014, another large version, unmounted with original gum but with a light crease, sold in Hong Kong for $652,542 against an estimate of $580,347.

On November 22, 2018, a pristine unused large version sold at auction in Beijing for 13.8 million yuan, reported as $2 million, beating the 2012 record and becoming the most expensive stamp yet sold in China. The buyer was not identified.

Standard-size examples sell for far less but still command large sums. An English-language reference lists sales of £31,050 in December 2010, HK$747,500 in September 2011, US$57,000 in Germany in 2014 and US$445,000 in Hong Kong in 2014, without saying which version each was. The stamp has also been shown at Chinese philatelic exhibitions in Chongqing, Shenzhen, Shantou and Mianyang between 2015 and 2017.

The numbers

Issue date

November 1968 (November 24 or 25 by different sources); withdrawn within half a day

Catalog designation

Wen 14 (Chinese numbering)

Face value

8 fen

Size

30 x 40 mm (standard stamp); the unissued large version is described as twice the size

Print run

1,200,000 (standard stamp, per a Chinese reference); very few escaped the recall

Large version known

8 to 10, depending on the report

Printing

Photogravure, sheets of 50 (10 x 5)

Perforation

11.5 x 11

Gum

Gummed

Timeline

1. Jan 22, 1967

   A People's Daily editorial launches the nationwide seizure of power during the Cultural Revolution.

2. Sep 7, 1968

   The People's Daily and PLA Daily hail revolutionary committees in every province, "except for Taiwan Province."

3. Nov 1968

   "The Whole Country is Red" goes on sale (sources give November 24 or 25) and is withdrawn within half a day after a map editor reports errors.

4. Oct 19, 1996

   A vertical pair sells at auction for 302,500 yuan.

5. Apr 20, 1997

   A block of four sells at auction for 748,000 yuan.

6. Oct 1, 1997

   A complete unused sheet of 50 is exhibited for the first time, in Guangzhou.

7. Nov 1, 2009

   A large-version example sells in Hong Kong for HK$3.68 million (about $475,000), a record for a Chinese stamp; designer Wan Weisheng watches.

8. May 21, 2012

   A mint large version sells in Beijing for $1.15 million, matching the auction record for Chinese philately.

9. Jan 12, 2014

   A large version sells in Hong Kong for $652,542.

10. May 29, 2015

    Exhibited at a rare stamp exhibition in Chongqing.

11. Nov 22, 2018

    A pristine unused large version sells in Beijing for 13.8 million yuan (about $2 million), the most expensive stamp yet sold in China.

The world in 1968

• Jan 30, 1968

  The Tet Offensive begins in South Vietnam.

• Apr 4, 1968

  Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis.

• Jun 5, 1968

  Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot in Los Angeles.

• Aug 20, 1968

  Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia, ending the Prague Spring.

• Oct 12, 1968

  The Summer Olympics open in Mexico City, ten days after the Tlatelolco massacre.

• Nov 5, 1968

  Richard Nixon wins the U.S. presidential election.

• Dec 22, 1968

  Mao Zedong calls for educated urban youth to be sent to the countryside, starting the "Up to the mountains and down to the villages" movement.

• Dec 24, 1968

  Apollo 8 enters lunar orbit, and William Anders photographs Earthrise.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, China 'The Whole Country Is Red' is number 9 of 100 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 82 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (25 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The official reason given for pulling the stamp was missing South China Sea islands and misdrawn borders, not Taiwan.
• The error was caught by an editor at China's state map publisher, not by the postal service.
• The designer watched his stamp set a record in Hong Kong in 2009 and said he had long feared being jailed for the mistake.
• Collectors call the two versions "Big Patch of Red" and "Little Patch of Red."
• Genuine examples show no halftone dots under a magnifier; most forgeries do.
• A complete unused sheet of 50 survives; it was first shown to the public in Guangzhou in 1997.