---
title: '"除四害！" (Eliminate the four pests!), Chinese campaign poster'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chu-si-hai-eliminate-four-pests-poster-china-1958/
description: A green-grey poster headed '除四害！' ('Eliminate the four pests!') shows a long sword driven through a mosquito, a fly and a sparrow, above a dead rat.
section: Collection
---

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3. "除四害！" (Eliminate the four pests!), Chinese campaign poster

[!["除四害！" (Eliminate the four pests!), Chinese campaign, 1958 China poster: A green-grey poster headed '除四害！'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/chu-si-hai-eliminate-four-pests-poster-china-1958.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/chu-si-hai-eliminate-four-pests-poster-china-1958.jpg)

# "除四害！" (Eliminate the four pests!), Chinese campaign poster

A green-grey poster headed '除四害！' ('Eliminate the four pests!') shows a long sword driven through a mosquito, a fly and a sparrow, above a dead rat, with a short paragraph of campaign text at upper right. The tell is the single label 'pest' (害) that puts a sparrow in the same category as disease-carrying insects and a rat, so that killing it reads as public hygiene (name-calling); the sword and the dead animals make the call to action physical and immediate, and the poster leans on the fear of disease.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

## Text on the object

Original (Chinese) · read from the image, not independently checked

Original (Chinese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
除四害！

[small paragraph, upper right, partly legible: begins 一九五六年起，在十二年内…]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Eliminate the four pests!

[small paragraph: 'From 1956, within twelve years…' (remainder not read)]
```

Headline clear; the paragraph is small and only its opening was read.

[← "乘风破浪 各显神通" (Brave the wind and waves, each shows their powers), Great Leap Forward poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brave-the-wind-and-waves-great-leap-forward-poster-china-1958/) [Robert Frost Exhibit poster (Chinese-English poster distributed in Taipei) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/robert-frost-exhibit-chinese-taipei-1958/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
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- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)