Shanghai Street View: Crazy Collectors

Many things have changed about China over the last 30 years, but one of the few that’s remained constant over that time is the country’s love of collecting stamps and other commemorative memorabilia. We were reminded of that fact once more this past week, when throngs of people lined up outside our local post offices and waited for hours in the winter cold to buy a new set of stamps celebrating the upcoming Year of the Monkey.

It’s interesting to see that stamps have retained such a strong place in the local consciousness, since the sending of snail mail that’s their true purpose is quickly becoming a thing of the past. But a closer look at the lingering stamp-collecting craze shines a spotlight on yet another major trend in contemporary China, since a big majority of people who often wait in line for hours are often older retirees who actually do still send letters.
Among my many memories of China in the 1980s, one of the strongest is the enthusiasm that many people had at the time for stamp collecting. It didn’t matter if you were young or old, man or woman. Back then it was easy to find one or more stamp collector in every family or office, and even the youngest enthusiasts were quite expert on the subject and happy to show off their albums full of the latest collectibles.

The post office played on that lingering fondness with the issue of 2 new sets of monkey-themed stamps this past week to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year. As always with many such collectibles, the new stamps are really artworks in themselves, one featuring an ordinary cartoon monkey swinging from a vine and the other a more stylized Chinese version. The stamps cost 1.2 yuan apiece and come in sheets of 6, meaning a collector need only shell out a very affordable 14.4 yuan for both sets.

My own theory is that a big part of the hobby’s attraction owes to such low costs. Unlike other collectibles, new stamps simply cost the price of their face value, which back in the 1980s was usually less than 1 or 2 jiao, or the equivalent of around 2 US cents. Such low prices made the hobby practical for everyone, since most people back then had plenty of free time to stand in lines and also the modest sums of money needed to buy stamps.

Stamp collecting in the pre-reform era was also a form of investment at a time when most Chinese had few options besides putting their money in the bank. After all, buying a stamp whose value could appreciate by many times over a decade or two probably looked quite attractive compared with the low interest rates that banks were offering.

This kind of mentality isn’t just limited to stamps, but also extends to other memorabilia. I left my home one morning a few months ago on the way to work, and was surprised to see a long line of people stretching from the entryway of a nearby bank branch all the way around the block. I figured perhaps the bank was have a promotion, but inquired and was surprised to hear the fuss was over a new commemorative coin that had just been issued.

Not surprisingly, the line was almost all retirees and there were few younger people waiting for their chance to buy the coins. That kind of scene gets played out regularly in modern Shanghai, with such older retirees often standing in long lines to take advantage of all kinds of promotions, even when they don’t particularly like or need whatever is being discounted or given away.

By comparison, the younger people of today seem much more like their US counterparts when it comes to collecting. Some see such collecting as a form of investment, but far more see it as a hobby that gives them the same kind of enjoyment that you get from other activities like playing sports, reading or blogging.

That said, there are still plenty of enthusiasts out there in both China and the US, eager to collect the latest cards, coins or stamps. But many of these people conduct most of their business at specialty shops online or at collector events, and stories of big lines for a new stamp are rare in the US headlines.

At the end of the day, I suspect the big lines outside post offices and banks will go the same way as other older habits like bicycling to work and showering at public bath houses. It’s also quite possible that the post offices themselves could disappear, as the older generation fades away and gets replaced by a newer group that uses couriers and email to send packages and letters, and has less interest and time to spend waiting in line to collect the latest stamps.