Chinese women's health and family planning posters, 1950s-1978

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Summary

Abstract:
Posters were used in cities and villages across China to promote health and hygiene, including for pregnancy and childbirth via the Patriotic Health Campaign from the 1950s through the 1970s, and to communicate limiting family sizes in the 1970s and the "one child" policy in the 1980s. The Chinese women's health and family planning posters include posters with images and text about childbirth, women's hygiene, and family planning.
Extent:
2.0 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in Mandarin Chinese.
Collection ID:
RL.11986

Background

Scope and content:

The Chinese women's health and family planning posters include posters with images and text about childbirth, women's hygiene, and family planning. The collection includes a series depicting fetal development from conception to childbirth; posters on women's health and hygiene during pregnancy; information on nutrition for mothers and babies; and posters on planning and limiting family size.

Biographical / historical:

In the 1950s to 1970s the Patriotic Health Campaign, initiated in 1952 by Mao Zedong and carried out in cities and villages across China, aimed to get rid of many common diseases. The campaign also meant embracing Western-style health and hygiene practices alongside traditional Chinese medicine. Health posters became an important means to disseminate health knowledge to the masses when the literacy rate was about 20% in rural villages in the 1950s. Posters were visually effective and powerful in teaching new and good practices.

Campaigns to manage population in China started as early as the mid-1950s, yet family planning remained voluntary until 1970. In the 1970s, slogans like "later, spaced and few" and "one's not too few, two will do, and three are too many for you" were widely propagated, limiting each couple to two children. The "one child" policy started in 1979 and was enforced in the 1980s. Propaganda posters were widely used and the responsible departments for these materials ranged from ministries such as the Ministry of Health and the National Family Planning Commission to local population policy centers. Posters often feature girls, to indicate that they are worth as much as boys.

Acquisition information:
The Chinese women's health and family planning posters were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase from Pekingman Books in 2022.
Processing information:

Processed by Luo Zhou and Tracy M Jackson, September 2022

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2022-0001.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Subjects

Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.

Subjects:
Pregnancy
Women -- Health and hygiene
Pregnant women -- Health and hygiene
Family planning
Family size
Communication in public health
Format:
Posters
Names:
China. Wei sheng bu
China. Guo jia wei sheng he ji hua sheng yu wei yuan hui
Places:
China -- History -- 1949-1976

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Chinese women's health and family planning posters, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.