On June 1, a special kind of stamp called “Havoc in Heaven” was issued by the China Post Group Corporation. As many will know, Havoc in Heaven is the name of a chapter from Journey to the West, one of the four great Chinese masterpieces. The stamp is imprinted with a handsome Monkey King holding a golden cudgel. Combining pictures with story, as well as poetry and calligraphy created by the artists in Shanxi, the stamp can be considered as a gift for pupils on International Children’s Day.
The six main themes of this stamp collection are respectively “snatching treasure in the Dragon King’s palace”, “conferring the title of bimaweng (an official guarding horse in the heaven)”, “proclaiming himself Great Sage Equaling Heaven”, “havoc in the peach garden”, “ferocious battle with divine troops” and “triumph in the temple of heaven”, all of which are the chapter titles in Journey to the West. Stamp collecting enthusiasts can easily find that the pattern on the stamp is drawn from the prototype of the handsome Monkey King in the cartoon of Havoc in Heaven created by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.
In order to make the stamp more vivid, a piece of elaborate-style painting was added to expand the story. Zhang Xiangzhou, a young painter in Shanxi, was authorized by the Post Group Corporation in Shanxi to paint the six stamps in the middle of April. While doing so, he expressed his own understanding towards the handsome Monkey King by paying more attention to story-telling and plot-setting.
According to informed sources, holders can appreciate Havoc in Heaven by scanning the two-dimension code imprinted on the stamp with their cell phone. A little game is also accessible for holders who can take photos with the Monkey King to recall their memories of this traditional Chinese cartoon from their childhood.
