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Australia Asia Stamps
This article was published by Australia Post in 1971 and has been reproduced with their permission.
The issue of the Australia Asia series of postage stamps by the Australian Post Office has been designed to draw attention to the increasing number of links between Australia and the countries of Asia.
The stamp artist, Mr. Douglas Annand, has demonstrated with his three designs that all men, regardless of race, have a common bond of art, culture and craftsmanship. The subject titles of the stamps are ‘Theatre’, ‘Music’ and ‘Sea Craft’ and the designs are largely reproductions of sketches made by the stamp artist during his visits throughout Asia. The denominations, 7c, 15c and 20c, represent the surface mail rate and two air mail rates from Australia to Asian countries.
To display Mr. Annand’s designs to better advantage, the stamps have been printed in a larger size than is normal for Australian stamps. The stamps are expected to remain on sale at post offices for about six months. The date of issue for these stamps, 6th January, 1971, coincided with the opening in Canberra of the 28th International Congress of Orientalists.
The first International Congress of Orientalists was held in 1873, and for almost one hundred years, interrupted only by two world wars, the Congress has met at three or four yearly intervals. Through this long history, the Congress has established and maintained a reputation as the major international forum of scholars of Asia. The fact that the Congress is being held for the first time in Australia is tangible evidence of the development of Asian studies in this country and our continuing interest and concern with our neighbour countries in Asia.
THEATRE
The artists portrayed on the 7c stamp are all men. The figure on the left is an actor in a Japanese Noh play. This is a highly stylized dramatic art form, the origins of which date back to the 13th century. Originally, the Noh play was performed exclusively for the Imperial Court. Today, its classical traditions are kept alive by its performers, many of whom come from a hereditary line of Noh artists.
An Australian dancing the role of the lyrebird in the ballet ‘The Display’ is shown in the centre panel. This ballet was created by Sir Robert Helpmann and had its premiere in Adelaide in 1964. The music was composed by Malcolm Williamson and the sets designed by Sidney Nolan. ‘The Display’ forms part of the repertoire of the Australian Ballet Company which has toured ten Asian countries.
In the right hand panel, a male singer, in the tradition of the classical Chinese opera, plays a female role, in the opera ‘The Drunken Concubine’. The subject of Mr. Annand’s sketch was Mai Lan Fang who at the age of 71 was still a star of the Peking Opera.
MUSIC
Various native musical instruments form the motif for the 15c stamp.
Two instruments from China, a mouth organ and a hooked trumpet, are featured in the top panel.
A didgeridoo or drone-pipe is shown in the middle panel. The didgeridoo is used by aborigines in Northern Australia and is made from bamboo with the inter-nodes removed or from a hollow sapling. To improve the tone of the instrument, the aborigines soak the didgeridoo in water for lengthy periods, and then smear it with grease and ochre. The ordinary didgeridoo is about five feet in length and usually undecorated, but the special ceremonial varieties are profusely decorated with designs and feathered strings and reach an average length of 10 to 15 feet.
The musical instruments in the third panel are a Thai spiked fiddle, a Tibetan drum and an Indian double oboe.
SEACRAFT
Riverboats and ocean going craft are featured on the 20c stamp.
An Arab dhow from the Red Sea area is contrasted with a three-masted junk in Canton in the top panel, while in the left of the bottom panel a riverboat, sketched at Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaysia is shown alongside a wallam or South Indian riverboat, from the Ernakulam area.
Australia is represented in the centre panel by a surf boat. These boats are used by life saving clubs for mass rescues in the ocean waters off the Australian coast. The first surf boats were broad-beam clinker types about 20 feet long and built of kauri and later maple or cedar. Today, the tuck-stern craft are constructed of moulded plywood; light enough to be carried by its five man crew, but robust enough to withstand the pounding of the surf. The length of the modern surf boats has been extended to 25 feet. Steering is by a 20 feet oregon oar through a closed rowlock bolted to the stern post. The oars of the four rowers are approximately 14 feet in length and the boat is equipped with a life saving belt attached to 200 yards of line.
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