POST 1 (1) pp. 95–119 Intellect Limited 2010
The Poster
Volume 1 Number 1
© 2010 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/post.1.1.95_1
DEBAO XIANG
Shanghai International Studies University
Transition of Chinese family planning
slogans and posters
Keywords
Abstract
slogans and posters
family planning
status quo
problems
countermeasures
China’s family planning slogans and posters, looked at over time, reflect an evolution in the communication approach used by the message senders. This article employs both qualitative and quantitative
approaches to record family planning slogans and posters throughout China. It finds that changes in the
political, economic, technological and population environments in China have been accompanied by significant transitions in China’s family planning slogans and posters. Message senders have re-conceptualized
their orientation from control to service. While new commercial slogans and posters have come on the
scene, there are still many family planning slogans and posters in cities and villages. The forms of slogans
and posters have become more colourful and advanced, and the contents have become more elaborated:
more humanistic contemporary ones have replaced the intimidating and forceful slogans and posters of the
past. The old propaganda model of family planning slogans and posters is undergoing transformation in
China to the persuasion model.
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Introduction
China is not only a country with a large population, but also a nation fond of creating slogans and
posters (Wang 2006). Slogans and posters serve as an important medium through which the Chinese
government (and other associations) publicize their ideas and policies. Throughout Chinese history,
slogans and posters have been widely used to mobilize people. Playing an important role in all
aspects of life, slogans and posters have become a special cultural form, an integrated part of the
Chinese national memory, and ‘the essence of the national essences’ (Kong 2004).
The Chinese government adopted a national family planning policy in 1982 and this is carried
out throughout the country. Therefore population and family planning (PFP) slogans and posters
are ‘especially prosperous’ (Xiao 2007), prominent in their quantity, scope, influences and eloquence.
They occupy an important position in the history of Chinese slogans and posters.
PFP slogans and posters have played an important role in explaining PFP policies to the public,
disseminating scientific knowledge about health, ensuring the carrying out of the policy and building a favourable population environment; however, their problems can never be ignored.
For example, previously we had slogans like ‘Better blood floods than a new birth’, ‘Better a broken family than the country in peril’, ‘Better have ten graves than a new birth’. These cold and inhuman slogans not only hindered the implementation of the family planning policy, but also damaged
the image of the Chinese government. Western media attacked Chinese family planning policy as
‘totalitarianism, dictatorship, brutality and the absence of human rights’ (Xiang 2009).
Considering all these factors, this article aims to address the following questions:
•
In the course of China’s reform (its political and economic transformation), what kind of
changes have taken place in the communication of PFP slogans and posters? Are there any
violent or bloody slogans left?
• Outdoor commercial advertisements have replaced traditional slogans and posters for public
communication. What is the status quo of the traditional slogans and posters?
• With the burgeoning of China’s mass communication industry (Internet, cell phones etc.),
what is the position of traditional slogans and posters? As a traditional means of communication or Chinese culture, are they going to disappear from history?
• What measures or strategies can be taken or adopted to optimize the communication effect
of PFP slogans and posters in light of the serious population situation and challenge?
Method
The article uses a Lasswellian approach, drawing on qualitative and quantitative methods, to answer
the research questions.
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In order to investigate the status quo of PFP slogans and posters in China, the article employs
field research method. By applying this method, the article explores materials on China’s 31 provinces first hand. Furthermore, detailed content analysis has been applied. Additionally, eleven
semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to track the evolution of PFP slogans and
posters from sender to receiver. The interviewees (including government officials, researchers and
practitioners) were notified about the topic and contacted in advance via telephone or e-mail so
that they could prepare accordingly. A survey of the needs of, and effects on, audiences were
conducted in five provinces in China, i.e. Beijing, Gansu, Henan, Guangdong and Sichuan.
The whole project was conducted from September 2007 to October 2007, almost one month.
Findings
The changes to the communication concept of PFP slogans and posters
Along with China’s transforming population situation, as well as the Chinese government’s administrative changes, the PFP communication concepts have also evolved. China’s population policies
have transformed from population control to the improvement of population quality, and to the new
stage of the comprehensive resolution of population problems; the administration concept of the
Chinese government has also transformed from control to service. In this context, the communication concept of PFP slogans and posters has also experienced significant changes. The changes to
the communication concept of PFP slogans and posters could be summed up in three points:
1. From cardre-oriented and sender-centered to people-based and receiver-centred
In the past, the release of slogans and posters was subordinate to the government’s orders and to
serve the government’s purpose. Therefore it was cadre-oriented and sender-centred. Now the
release of slogans and posters is to serve the needs of the receivers or the people. Therefore it is
human-oriented and audience-centred.
Under the guidance of the cadre-based and sender-centred communication concepts, the PFP
slogans and posters usually created large dynamic scenes and catchword-like conceptual slogans,
which only aim to please the leaders, and pay no attention to the needs of the masses.
As one of the officials of the publicity division of the Population and Family Planning Commission
of the Gansu province said in their interview:
In the past, the slogans were barren, and were made up to please the leaders. But now the
slogans are people-oriented. They are addressed to the people. And after reading them, people are able to memorize them. The previous slogans were empty slogans of policies, and did
not have much effect on the people.
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2. From forcible indoctrination to soft communication
Being interviewed about the publicity strategies of family planning policies in the past, one person
(in charge of population and family planning publicity) said that ‘[in] the past publicity was always
forcible and mandatory propaganda, which is not people-oriented, and overlooks the needs of the
receivers. It is a one-way and authoritative publicity, and the receivers can only listen to the publicity
and do as they are told.’ China’s population and family planning policies have been implemented
for more than 30 years. Despite great achievements, they have detoured recently and have paid a
high price for this. The cause of this cost is because, in the past, the publicity concept of family planning policies was mandatory.
The forcible indoctrination in the style of executive orders shows itself in hard-line slogans.
These slogans only focus on the government’s will, and pay no attention to the needs of the public;
these slogans adopt mandatory and imperative tones, and are sometimes even brutal and rough. For
example, ‘Better blood floods than a new birth’; ‘Better have ten graves than a new birth’; ‘Better a
broken family than the country in peril’.
But now the notion of soft communication is more widely adopted. These kinds of slogans
and posters put more emphasis on serving the masses, rather than delivering hard-line orders,
and usually use polite and respectful tones and pay meticulous attention to the rhetoric
employed.
According to the appeals of PFP slogans, we can generally classify them into seven types:
advocacy type, promise type, explanation type, warning type, echo type, and threatening type.
Each type has its different function, and used in different topic realms, therefore possesses different characteristics. The following are examples to each type of slogans: Advocacy type: ‘to have
fewer children, swiftly achieve prosperity, and build a harmonious new village.’ Promise type:
‘Family planning is good, as the government takes care of your social welfare.’ Explanation type:
‘The population problem is a development problem in essence.’ Warning type: ‘The population
problem is a long term concern.’ Echo type: ‘Home is like a ship, love is the sail, and reproductive
health is your happy harbour’. Threatening type: ‘To sternly fight against the act of selectively
terminating a pregnancy’.
In the past, there were more threatening slogans like ‘Blood floods’, ‘add 10 graves’,
‘Curette! Curette! Curette!’ and ‘be ligated and fined’.1 Now we have more slogans like, ‘For
the people who practice family planning, thank you!’ ‘For our nation’s prosperity, please practise family planning’. ‘Family planning service brings love, and legal administration warms your
heart’. ‘People are migrating, while the family planning service remains the same’, and ‘for
those one-child families, please take it easy, for the government will offer pensions for social
welfare’.
1.
Editor’s note: Both
‘curette’ and ‘ligation’
are methods of
procuring abortions.
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3. The transition of communication contents
The content of family planning slogans and posters are closely related to national family planning
policies, which are correlated to the status of China’s population. Along with the changes to the
Chinese population’s situation and policy, the contents of family planning slogans and posters have
evolved accordingly.
Specifically speaking, the contents of family planning slogans and posters have evolved from
controlling the population size and improving the population quality to stabilizing the population growth, solving the population problem and promoting the comprehensive development of
human beings; from standardizing reproductive behaviour to implementing a rewarding and
supportive policy; from emphasizing the citizen’s family planning performance obligation to
defending people’s informed choice and high quality service rights; from the promotion of
contraception and birth control to the dissemination of reproductive health. To sum it up, the
contents of family planning slogans and posters have experienced the following three
transformations:
1. From the pure policy propaganda to all-around popularization of policy, knowledge and
information
In the first stage of family planning, namely the population control stage, the contents of family
planning slogans and posters are purely policy propaganda. On speaking of changes to the content
of family planning slogans and posters, the official from the National Population and Family
Planning Commission (NPFPC) said,
The previous focus was on the education of national policy. Though at present policy education is still a very important part of the PFP communication, it’s not the whole part. We also
have the popularization of knowledge. We are advocating it actively now, hoping that it can
strengthen the emphasis on health education and knowledge communication.
Currently the contents of family planning slogans and posters are very extensive. They integrate the
communication of policy, thought, knowledge and information: this includes not only the ‘Marxist
population theory’ and national population situation and policy (which aims to make sure that the
development of population and economic society are carried out widely among cadres and the
masses in a harmonious and sustainable manner), but also the family virtue education, which advocates late marriage and birth, fewer and healthier births, equality of men and women, husbands’
participation in family planning, and birth of girls and boys having the same worth.
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Five categories
1. Target audience
2. Advocacy for new
birth culture and social
customs
Subdivisions
Sub-themes
Female
Care for girl and care for women
Male
Men’s health and men’s participation in FP
Old people
Old people and the aging society
Migrant population
Administration and service to the migrant population
The public
Citizen’s right and responsibility to FP
Birth culture
Birth culture and marriage customs
Social customs
Building of new city, new village and new family
Social support for some rural families practising FP and fewer
births, faster affluence
RH/FP quality service
3. Campaigns conducted
by NPFPC
Prevention of HIV/AIDS
Campaign on new decision
Advocacy of nation policy of FP
Regulations and rules of FP and administration in line with law
4. Basic concept of PFP
Size of population
Control of the population size and stabilize the low birth rate
Quality of population
Bear and rear better children to improve the quality of population
Structure of population
Advocate for gender equality and correct the imbalance of the
birth sex ratio
Problems of population
Solve China’s population problem
5. Basic work of PFP
Basic work of NPFPC and others
Table 1: Themes of PFP slogans and posters.
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Besides this, there is also reproductive health education, which mainly aims to enhance people’s
sense of self-protection and protects women’s lawful rights. What’s more, there is also life science education, which focuses on protecting the environment, preventing diseases and lowering defective birth rates
and enhancing the eugenic quality of the population. The popularization of health knowledge, which in
the past mainly focused on contraception and birth control, has been changed to accommodate reproductive health, knowledge about preventing HIV and AIDS, youth health, male health, climacteric health
knowledge and so on. All of these additions have promoted the quality of people’s lives.
The propagation of family planning policy is becoming more abundant and colourful too. In the
past, the policy simply propagated basic national conditions and interests. Now, it focuses on important positions of population and family planning in the comprehensive construction of a well-off
society, harmonious and sustainable development between population and environment in economic society, the harmonious development of population and environment, and the unity of
national interests and family interests, long-term interests and realistic interests.
These areas could be illustrated by the statistics on the themes of PFP slogans and posters.
Generally speaking, we can classify the 2787 items of slogans and posters collected from 31 provinces into five big categories and eighteen sub-themes.
As a whole, the five categories are: the target audience of PFP slogans and posters; advocacy for
new birth culture and social customs; campaigns conducted by National Population and Family
Planning Commission (NPFPC); basic concept of PFP; and basic work of PFP.
In detail, these five categories can be further divided into eighteen sub-themes:
The target audience of PFP slogans and posters can be further divided into the following subjects
‘care for girls, care for women’; the subjects for men i.e., ‘health and participation of the male’; the
subjects for the elderly i.e., ‘the old and ageing population’; the subject for the floating population,
i.e., ‘management and service to the floating population’ and the subject for common people i.e.,
‘right and obligation of people to family planning’.
Advocacy for new birth culture and social customs can be divided into sub-themes of ‘bearing
conception and a new culture of marriage and childbearing’ and ‘new city, new country and new
family construction’.
Campaigns conducted by NPFPC include the themes of ‘social support for some rural families
practising FP and fewer births, faster affluence’, ‘RH/FP quality service’, ‘HIV/AIDS prevention’,
‘New decision publicity’, ‘Advocacy of national policy of family planning’ and ‘rules of family planning and lawful administration’.
The essence of population and family planning contains themes for the size, quality, structure
and problems of the population. The theme for the size of the population is ‘control the population
size and stabilize the low birth rate’. The theme for population quality is ‘aristogenesis, better education and improving population quality’. The theme for population structure is ‘Advocate for gender
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equality and correct the imbalance of the birth sex ratio.’ The theme for the population problem is
‘solving China’s population problem.’
Here, the most important subjects are ‘bearing conception and a new culture of marriage and
childbearing’, ‘a system of secondary encouragements to having fewer births and a prosperous life’,
‘bear and rear better children to improve the quality of population’, ‘care for girls, care for women’,
‘advocating sexual equality and the rectification the gender imbalances.’ and ‘overall solving of the
population problem’.
The number of slogans and posters with different themes is vast. Slogans and posters about
‘bearing conception and a new culture of marriage and childbearing’ appear most, 455, accounting
for 16.3%. In second place is the ‘system of auxiliary encouragement and fewer births, faster affluence project’, which has 346 items, 12.4%. There are 291 items about ‘quality service, better education
and improving population quality’, which account for 10.4%, and ‘care for girls, care for women’ has
225 items (accounting for 8.1%). Both ‘advocating sexual equality and rectifying the higher gender
percentage’ and ‘overall solving of the population problem’ have 197 items respectively, occupying
8.1%. Altogether the six subjects occupy 61.4% of all propaganda.
2. From previous punishment to nowadays encouragement
During the population control stage, the national family planning policies mainly relied on punishment. There were specific punishment policies for people with early marriages and early births,
illegitimate births or pregnancy, and childbearing out of plan in each city, autonomous region and
municipality city. Punishment was mainly the financial penalty.
As for state cadres, administrative punishment (including degradation, demotion and dismissal
from the public service) was imposed on them and their various welfare treatments were cancelled.
The punishment scope varies in terms of the economic development level. Some punishments are
enacted in accordance with the rules for one child beyond plan, while some are punished with a
monetary fine. Therefore, at that time, the family planning policy was carried out using the following methods. First, people will be educated to accept family planning. If they still do not accept,
then they will be forced to do so. What is more, if they still resist obstinately, then they will be put
into prison.
As the population situation has changed a lot at the new stage of family planning, the population policy has altered accordingly. Now, the promotion of family planning is interest-oriented: it
attracts people to practice family planning by offering them benefits and interests. The government
is the main body that perform this interest-oriented mechanism by various means, such as relief,
assistance, allowance, feeding, encouragement and punishment. This mechanism can protect the
rights and benefits of the public and families practising family planning, restrict the illegal bearing,
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2.
Editor’s note: The
author notes that the
term ‘F9’ ‘… refers to
the worker or cadre
practicing family
planning.’
help people build up legal bearing ideas and ultimately promote people’s all-around development
and solve the population problem thoroughly.
At the new stage, these important tasks of population and family planning include building
interest-oriented mechanisms quickly, perfecting various existing policies of encouragement, assistance and salvation, and setting new policies.
For example, in the southern Yunnan province of China, the encouragement policy consists of
rewarding money, giving priority to education, releasing from duties and offering subsidies. Couples
who have had only one child can get one thousand RMB as a reward. The child can obtain 10–20
marks when he or she takes the entrance examination to university and is given priority to enter a
superior institution. Besides that, once in compulsory education, material fees, incidental expenses
and stationery fees are all free for them. In addition, parents of the child are released from the
financing and labour of their village community. After the parents become 60 years old, they can get
600 to 750 RMB each year from the government as a subsidy.
As a result, there are quite a lot of family planning slogans and posters themed on the encouragement and subsidy policy. According to the investigation, there are 346 artefacts slogans and
posters, which account for 12.4% of the whole. During the in-depth interview with F9 cadre2 in
the family planning service centre of Hongshan township, Luoyang, he also mentioned this
change, ‘the current theme of slogans is the encouragement and assistance of government. The
policy of family planning has been recently changed from the previous policy of punishment to
one of encouragement and subsidy.’ For example the only child fee and the encouragement and
assistance fee are granted. The whole country is united in supporting this policy, and the slogans
reflect this point.
3. From the previous civil obligation to current civil rights
In the past implementation of family planning was regarded as a public obligation, while now it is
viewed as the people’s right. The right of performing family planning is one of the various rights that
people enjoy in China. The Chinese enjoy various rights such as personal rights, political rights,
economical rights, property rights, educational rights, labour rights, and marriage and family rights.
The right to family planning is only one of these. According to Chinese law, the national situation
and the practical needs of local government strengthen the management and service of family planning. The rights of family planning for citizens mainly include the following aspects:
•
Bearing rights, that is to say, people enjoy the right to decide the number and the time of birth
according to laws and regulations. Citizens should consider corresponding social responsibilities
and the material and spiritual needs of present and future children when they perform bearing
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•
•
•
•
•
rights. The bearing rights of citizens should not be illegally restricted and deprived by any citizens, legal persons or other organizations.
The right to adopt and place a child up for adoption by law. According to the law of adoption,
people who meet the adoption conditions can adopt the child by law, while people can place a
child up for adoption when they find it too difficult to bring up their children. The number of
adopted children is not restricted when people adopt orphans, disabled children and abandoned
children.
Informed right to birth control measures. Citizens have the right to obtain abundant education
and information and to choose birth control measures that are safe, effective and suitable: organizations which perform birth control operations, special examinations and special treatment
should ensure the safety of the patients.
Right to health care and birth control services. The nation should ensure that people enjoy the
right to obtain suitable family planning services. Related departments must provide safe and
effective drugs and techniques for birth control. The country provides free contraception and
birth control services for couples. Institutions of medical and health care should provide premarital health-care services for citizens. Couples of a child-bearing age can enjoy the free technical service of family planning. Free items of service consist of drugs for birth control, placing or
taking out the intrauterine contraceptive device (and all kinds of corresponding medical examinations regulated by technical routines), man-made techniques of pregnancy termination (and
corresponding medical examinations), sterilization (and corresponding medical examinations)
and complications diagnosis in family planning operation and so on.
Right to family planning encouragement. The nation encourages citizens who perform family planning. For example, citizens who undertake late marriage and childbirth can get longer honeymoon
and maternity leave or other welfare treatments. Citizens who qualify for an only-child certificate
enjoy some special treatments according to related national and local regulations.
The right to obtain social security preferentially. The country establishes and amplifies the social
security system, such as basic endowment insurance, medical insurance, maternity insurance and
social welfare, to improve family planning. What is more, it gives financial and technical training support and preferential benefits to those practising family planning in the countryside; and gives preferential care (in loan) for poverty alleviation, work relief, poverty alleviation projects. It also provides
social relief to those poor families who practise family planning in the countryside.
Among the above six rights, the last four rights are the most frequently released rights.
At present, the communication of citizens’ family planning rights concentrates on the right to an
informed choice of contraception and health care, as well as getting the reward benefits of family
planning and obtaining the preferential social security right.
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Appeals for citizens’ obligations embody state will, while the communication of citizens’ rights
embodies the important status of people. The change from the citizen’s ‘obligation’ to the citizen’s
‘rights’ are reflected in the changes within the propaganda slogans.
The status quo of family planning slogans and posters
Quantity of PFP slogans and posters:
According to the fieldwork undertaken nationwide in 31 cities, towns and villages, a large quantity
of 2787 PFP slogans were collected. Among the collection, the distribution of the slogans in these
areas is not balanced. Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region possesses the largest number, with
148 pieces, and the next is the Mongolia Autonomous Region, with 138. The Tibet Autonomous
Region and Heilongjiang Province have smaller numbers, 23 and 43 each. See the following figure:
Figure 1: Number of PFP slogans and posters in 31 provinces of China.
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Figure 2: Slogans brushed on walls.
Figure 3: Banner slogans.
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Figure 4: Colour posters.
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Figure 5: Colour large-scaled exhibition board.
Figure 6: Unified standard lamp-lit placards.
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Figure 7: Big character poster.
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Figure 8: Slogans written with chalk.
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Form taken by PFP slogans and posters
The present PFP slogans or posters mainly take the following forms:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Slogans brushed on walls
Banner slogans
Colour posters
Large-size exhibition boards with a coloured background
Unified standard lamp-lit placards
Blackboard newspapers
Leaflets
Big character posters
Among the above, there are more refined colour picture posters, large-size exhibition boards and
unified standard placards, which show the trends of artistic development. Colour picture posters,
in all the plastic arts, are mostly of propaganda and agitation and of a mass character. For a country with a large proportion of illiteracy and a large territory, they are of necessity and strength.
The number of slogans brushed on walls is 1112 items, 40% of the total. There are 586 slogans
on large-size exhibition boards, 21% of the total. There are 491 on colour picture posters, 18% of the
total, and 338 small-size placards, 12%. There are a few slogans on banners, blackboards, condom
vending machines, leaflets and big-character posters.
Banners with particular intentions are used in specific activities for propagandizing population
and family planning. Seventy-seven were collected in the investigation. Blackboards written with
chalk appear mainly in residential communities, and only 37 pieces were collected in the investigation. To paste up slogans on the condom vending machines is inventive, but these incidences were
relatively small (only five pieces were found nationwide).
Colour picture posters are used more in cities than in the countryside. Walls, pictures and placards
are important carriers. Walls used for brushed slogans are the main carrier in villages. The so-called
‘Cultural Wall’ is the most conspicuous in the countryside. The difference between the city and the countryside shows the difference between their developments: those in cities show their artistic taste and
refinement while those in the countryside, because of the lower education level, are still rudimentary.
Persuasive pictures
A picture is worth a thousand words. A life-like /true-to-life background picture cannot only justify
the theme of the slogan, but also promote their aesthetic values. Thus pictures become a key element
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to ascertain whether PFP slogans or posters can grasp the audience’s attention or have a communicative effect.
The content analysis shows that 63% (1743) of the slogans or posters have background pictures
and 37% of them are without pictures. Compared with the slogans on walls, the present PFP slogans
and posters gain audience appeal and acceptance more by visual impact, and therefore reach their
desired communication effect more easily.
In semiotics, the signifier and signified constitute a binary opposition. The signifier is the form or
the sign and the signified is the content or the meaning. A message is the unity of the two. In the
semiotic view, slogans and posters are signs. As to those with background pictures, the contents of
these should be examined – they are not a casual but a selective choice with intention. If they are
personal figures, their facial expressions and body movements should be carefully figured out. Body
movements (‘body language’) are constituents of an image; they also have meanings or are simply
symbols. Facial expressions are a kind of language reflecting persons’ attitudes and standpoints. The
disseminator, therefore, constructs PFP ideas through the selection of personal figures, body movements and facial expressions.
According to the survey, more personal figures, such as babies, girls and families, are used in the
background pictures than landscapes. In terms of their body language, all figures (including babies,
adult couples, seniors and families) show their smiling faces to express their happiness, in order to
communicate that family planning is beneficial to all. Besides, flowers (which symbolize happiness),
cities (which symbolize modernization), and earth (which symbolizes mother and resources) are also
applied as background picture to echo people’s emotions.
Discussion
The status quo of traditional PFP slogans and posters against the background of
flourishing new media and sorted out the PFP slogans and posters in China
How can slogans and posters, as the traditional public-information communication media, survive in
the time of flourishing commercial advertisements? Scholars have paid close attention to this question.
The article has investigated the present condition of PFP slogans and posters through field research.
During the Cultural Revolution, slogans and posters were everywhere, but these days are gone.
According to the field research, all together 2787 PFP slogans and posters were singled out and collected
in 31 cities. The number of slogans, as a means to communicate public information, has fallen greatly.
PFP slogans and posters, more often than not, reside in inconspicuous corners of residential
areas while commercial ones (on new media) monopolize the eye-catching spots in downtown areas
and along main roads. The space left for PFP slogans and posters is diminishing. PFP slogans used
to be painted on walls, in the form of Dazibao (i.e., big character poster) or as white-lettered banners
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on a red background. With the development of science and technology, more and more slogans and
posters appear in the form of colour-painted or inkjet picture posters, large billboards and unified
electric displays. Slogans and posters (a mass media to mobilize people) keep pace with the development of science and technology.
The article also generalizes the models, themes and rhetoric of PFP slogans and posters. PFP
slogans and posters can be roughly classified into six categories according to the tone of discourse: advocating, promising, explaining, warning, echoing, and threatening. The themes,
based on the keynote of PFP work, can be divided into five types and eighteen sub-themes. The
often-used rhetoric devices are antithesis, contrast, parallelism, rhyme, three-character sentences or seven-character sentences. Babies, girls, families and the elderly are the principal personal symbols in PFP slogans, while flowers, the earth and cities are the physical signs that
often occurred.
The transformation and development of PFP slogans within the fast-changing
Chinese society
The transformation in China’s political, economic, social and scientific environment has brought
great changes to the PFP slogans and posters. The communication concept in PFP slogans and posters has changed from sender-centred to audience-centred, from official-centred to public-centred,
from hard-push to soft sell, from government-order to public-demand.
In line with China’s internal reforms and external openness, the audience of the PFP slogan
becomes more and more diversified and stratified: their role develops from a passive receiver to an
active participator.
The contents of PFP slogans and posters have expanded from policy propaganda to a comprehensive communication about PFP policy, knowledge and information. The propaganda about
‘controlling population size and improving population quality’ has expanded into comprehensive
publicity about stabilizing the lower birth rate, solving the population problem as whole and promoting people’s well-being. The focus of PFP slogans has turned from standardizing people’s
childbearing practice to implementing reward-aid PFP policy, and from emphasizing people’s
responsibility to guaranteeing people’s right to select a good PFP service (from contraception to
knowledge of healthy conception).
The covert persuasive strategy of PFP slogans has replaced the blunt propaganda of the past.
The outdated intimidating strategy in PFP slogans was a reflection of a social reality of the past, i.e.,
governmental control of people and neglect of people’s actual requirements and rights. The strategy of today’s PFP slogans tends to appeal to the people with rights, information and needs, by
resorting to soft words and personified pictures to persuade the public into practising FP.
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The current problems with PFP slogans
The intimidating PFP slogans of the past not only spoiled the relationship between governments
and people, and hindered the implementation of PFP policy, but also put China under western scrutiny as it was accused of trampling human rights. What about the PFP slogans today? What are the
problems in the current PFP slogans? The article makes a systemic analysis of the main problems in
current PFP slogans and posters.
The one-way communicating mechanism in PFP slogans lacks the feedback of the target audience. In the absence of competition, the state-financed PFP slogan- spread in the old administrative system leads to a deficiency in its input outlay and a slow down in development. The
communication concept of slogan-makers is still official-centred, especially at the grass-roots
level, though certain changes have taken place. PFP slogan-makers differ in their abilities and
need further training as a whole, especially those at village- and town-level PFP departments. The
composition of the PFP team hardly lives up to the changing demands of society. The withdrawal
and merger of the PFP organization (and transfer of PFP personnel in some regions) has worsened the execution of PFP policy at the basic level.
Problems also exist in the release of PFP slogans and posters. For example, the amount of PFP
slogans and posters is far from enough, the update of PFP slogans and posters is slow, and PFP
slogans usually cluster in certain places: 84% of PFP slogans can be found in densely-populated,
conspicuously residential communities in cities and on roadsides in villages. The patterns and
models of PFP are usually out-dated and uninteresting, while new media forms of PFP slogans and
posters are few and far between. The wordy PFP slogans (39% over fifteen characters) also spoil
their spreading effect.
PFP slogans do not always communicate directly with their target audience, overlooking the differences between city dwellers and villagers. Besides, the PFP slogans have ignored some groups,
like adolescents, the new-rich, celebrities, party officials and administration organizations, creating a
black spot in PFP publicity.
The contents of PFP slogans and posters tend to be politically orientated, obsolescent, and unimaginative. And even the so-called ‘new concept’ proposed in PFP slogans lags behind the times.
Some impersonal and degrading words in PFP slogans complicate the social bias against vulnerable
groups (floating population, migrant workers and laid-off workers), and this is also unfavourable to
the execution of PFP.
The deficiency in effective evaluation of PFP slogans and posters is reflected in its lack of independent third party participation, in the qualitative rather than quantitative evaluation and in the
absence of a scientific evaluation standard. Therefore the results of evaluation tend to be subjective
and misleading.
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Countermeasures to improve PFP publicity
Regarding the communication mechanism, this article suggests reforming the unified communication mechanism and establishing a network of information communication. In addition to the fund
from the government, financial support from the people, society, enterprises, and international
donors should also be enlisted. This article sorts out the relation between the segments of state/
province/city/town/village and the system of administration/institution/enterprise/organization. It
also suggests a clear division of work so as to formulate a complementary and competitive communication mechanism. It also puts forward some suggestions as to how to build-up a specialized PFP
team and improve the grass-roots PFP organization and personnel.
In terms of a PFP slogan-releasing strategy, this article points out the importance of the slogan
quantity and stresses standardization, updates and supervision of slogans after releasing. It suggests
innovation in slogan patterns should be pursued, as well as the release of slogans popular among
people and slogans of a promising, knowledge-conveying and empathizing nature.
The article emphasizes the investigation and stratification of audience so as to ensure pointed
propagation of PFP information. To the growing floating population, the article suggests a massmobilizing communication strategy. The multi-channel propagation of mass communication, stratifying communication and interpersonal communication will maximize the spreading effect of PFP
propagation so as to satisfy the diversified demands from people of different walks of life.
The contents of PFP slogans should keep pace with time and be conveyed in the language of
ordinary people in order to boost the attraction, influence and persuasion of PFP slogans and posters. PFP slogans should first give consideration to people, and be polite and caring in tone, accurate
and scientific in content, and advanced and humanistic in concept.
This article puts forward an argument for third-party participation in the evaluating mechanism,
with a standard scientific evaluation and a standardization of the slogan releasing process. It suggests a five-stage slogan releasing process of prior investigation, agenda setting, designing, execution, effect evaluation, and strategies and measures to institutionalize and evaluate PFP slogans.
To meet the challenge of new problems in population conditions, the improvement of PFP slogans/poster release will be of practical importance to the fulfilment of the PFP project.
Conclusion
The significance of this research lies in four areas.
1. First, the poster/slogan material collected from field research is of historical value.
Posters and slogans as a social language are a fleeting phenomenon. They need to be collected,
straightened out and preserved or they will be gone forever. The main problem with former
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Chinese slogans studies is ‘inadequate materials […] lack of scientific quantitative collection and
field surveys’ (Hu 2004), which is inconsistent with the China’s habitual use of slogans. It was
mainly foreign researchers and amateurs who collected slogans from 1949 to the Cultural
Revolution period, but present-day slogan collection and sorting remains the task of Chinese
scholars. Through fieldwork, the present study has collected 2787 slogans from across the country, which will be of great historical significance to the future study of slogans and posters.
2. The theoretical value of the research.
The second problem with former slogan research is ‘it lacks systematic theoretical analyses’ (Hu
2004). Many of the former researchers only gave desultory comments, lacking theoretical analysis. Based on primary materials, the author attempts to give a systematic and theoretical study of
almost all aspects of the dissemination of Chinese PFP slogans and posters. Such research is of
value in establishing Chinese theories.
3. The practical value of the research.
PFP slogans and posters, as a means to covey health knowledge, play a unique role in carrying
out the family-planning policy and in creating a favourable population environment. As China
enters into a relatively stable period of low birth rates, more attention should be paid to a comprehensive plan of population issues and all-round human development. The study of slogans
and posters will help to achieve the goal of low birth rate, high population quality, systematic
administration of the migrant population, active reaction to the problem of an ageing population
and so on and so forth.
4. Slogans and posters reflect the Chinese government’s image.
Cool and barbaric slogans have damaged the positive image of the Party and the government
among the People. The Chinese government is now trying to construct a service-oriented executive body in order to rectify these former problematic slogans, improve the relationship between
the Party and the masses, and help establish the new image of the Party as ‘built for the public,
[to] exercise state power for the people’. (Zhao 2004) From the perspective of international
communication, because of the consistency of interior and exterior propaganda, an open-minded
and civilized Chinese government will be conducive to the expression of its international image
and create a useful ideological environment for its development.
The author suggests some directions for future study on slogans and posters here:
1. A macroscopic study of today’s slogans and posters in China. China is abundant in slogans
and posters of different fields and forms, but research in this area is far from satisfactory. The
FP slogan research in this article may provide a glimpse into the wider picture of slogans and
posters in China, but the whole picture is still unclear. Therefore, future researchers should
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make a macroscopic study of China’s slogans and posters rather than in a limited domain (as
in this study).
2. A diachronic study of slogans and posters. Slogans and posters are time-honoured in China,
reflecting the change in China’s politics, economics, social and cultural life. This article has
made a synchronic study of FP slogans in the present period and though a comparison
between the intimidating slogans of the past and the persuasive ones of today is mentioned, this is not the main focus of this study. Slogans and posters provide a record of history: they are living fossils of a culture. A diachronic study of slogans and posters will reveal
the transformation patterns of China’s slogans and posters, and can help predict their future
development.
3. Further study on effect evaluation and in-depth interviews with slogan-makers. Future researchers should pursue a nationwide sample in order to assess the growing effect of slogans in China
and seek in-depth interviews with more slogan-makers/researchers.
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Suggested citation
Xiang, D. (2010), ‘Transition of Chinese family planning slogans and posters’, The Poster 1: 1,
pp. 95–119, doi: 10.1386/post.1.1.95_1
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Contributor details
Dr Debao Xiang is presently a lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai
International Studies University. He completed his doctoral work at the School of Journalism and
Communication, Tsinghua University, China and the Centre for International Communication,
Macquarie University, Australia. His research interests include international communication, political communication and journalism studies.
Contact: School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai International Studies University,
Shanghai, China, 200083.
E-mail: [email protected]
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