Here you will find stamps from China’s postal history beginning after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. This era opened with the Beiyang government period (1912–1928), during which China was fragmented and controlled by regional warlords, despite the formal establishment of the Republic of China. It was followed by the Nationalist unification period (1928–1937) under the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Chiang Kai-shek, who sought to centralize power and modernize the nation. Stamps from this time reflect both political instability and efforts at reform. During the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937, large parts of China were occupied by Japan, and different regions were governed by separate regimes with their own postal systems. The collection also includes items from this wartime fragmentation and into the postwar period.