Chinese Public Health Posters

Gallery: War and Politics

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Poster with a main image of bombs, flies, mosquitoes, rats and other pests attacking a running person, text below

Poster with a main image of mosquitoes and bombs falling from the sky onto a town, text below

Poster with a main image of men using shovels and a sprayer to attack their enemies, text below

Poster with a main image and title below

Poster with two images on the right and left, text on the right and left sides

Poster with title on top, a series of images, and text

Poster with brown background, panel of text to the left, and image to the right

Poster with green background, panel of text to the left, and image to the right

Poster with a brown background, image on top, text on the bottom

Poster with text on the top and left side, main image on the right, and smaller images below

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细菌战 (Public health and germ warfare during the Korean War), ca. 1952

细菌战 (Public health and germ warfare during the Korean War), author unknown, ca. 1952

In the early 1950s, during the Korean War there was a “patriotic public health movement” against germ warfare. Posters produced by the local government of Shandong province (roughly 100 miles from Korea) show weapons accompanied by pests such as rats, mosquitoes, and flies. Using the imagery of the Korean War weaponized and demonized pests. The captions condemn the United States for using biological warfare in Northeast China and Korea's disregard of international sanction.

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About the Book

These posters made in the early 1950s used the Korean War as a political backdrop to incentivize the public in their fight against diseases spread by pests such as flies and mosquitoes.