Friday, July 22, 2011

Stamp Exhibition on Dr Sun Yat Sen @ SPM

We went to the Singapore Philatelic Museum for the Stamp Exhibition on Dr Sun Yat Sen. It was a rare treat to see some of the uncommon stamps linked with Dr Sun Yat Sen. The visit was highly educational. For example, I didn't know that Dr Sun Yat Sen 孙中山's "中山" came from his Japanese name 中山樵, which he used when he was hiding in Japan. His actual name is 孙文. Another piece of philately tidbit was that Dr Sun Yat Sen was personally involved in the design of one of the early China stamps because he felt that these stamps were important to the modern day China.


Of course, the philately material provided much information about Dr Sun Yat Sen's life. It was also interesting to know that Dr Sun's Three Principles of the People (三民主义) had been depicted on a US stamp, together with Dr Sun and US President Lincoln's portraits. It seemed that the political ideas of both great men had often been compared for their similarities. While I do have stamps with Dr Sun's portrait (many Taiwan stamps have his picture), I think I might want to keep an eye to look out for that particular US stamp with both Dr Sun and President Lincoln.




The exhibition also contained materials about Dr Sun Yat Sen's relationship with the early Singapore Chinese, and the establishment of 晚晴园. Looking at the pictures of Dr Sun Yat Sen with some of the early Singapore Chinese (including famous folks like Teo Eng Hock, Tan Chor Nam and Lim Nee Soon), I would say that Singapore's relationship with China started really early. 

For those who are interested to visit the Singapore Philatelic Museum, you can find out more accessibility details at their website.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am a new collector in singapore, will you be able to let me know where can I can stamp publishings and supplies here? My email is palms1234@hotmail.com

Sgstamps said...

Hi, for buying stamps for your stamps collection, you could easily approach the stamps vendors at Penisular Plaza - near Funan centre.

Alternatively, you could find loose stamps at Chinatown (streetside vendors) or at the Philatelic Museum. For the latter you could sometimes find very interesting stamps in good condition (about $0.20 each).

Of course, online auctions platform (ebay Singapore) is another choice, but I used it only to get certain stamps to complete a set.

Sgstamps said...

For new releases, just go to any Post Office and you can get them.

For supplies, I guess you meant stamp tongs, books and such? You could get them at the stamps vendors or just the Philatelic Museum as well.

Philatelist77 said...

Nice write-up on the SYS stamp exhibition. You mentioned Dr Sun was involved in the design of an aeroplane stamp. I would like to have more details on this. My question is did Dr Sun design the 1931 aeroplane stamp and if not, was it his idea to add the 'Sun' tail behind the plane? What was the reason for this addition?

Sgstamps said...

Hi Philaelist77,

I'm actually not so sure about the 1931 aeroplance design. Sorry, can't help you there.

Cheers,

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