People vs. ‘god of plague’: Socialist China’s anti-zoonotic campaign media as environmental media

Abstract

This article cross-pollinates environmental media studies with socialist China’s anti-snail fever campaign media, including two 1965 science education films, a 1961 song book, all entitled ‘Song wensheng’ (‘Sending away god of plague’), and a 1970 Chijiao yisheng shouce (‘The handbook for barefoot doctors’). Through studying popular audio-visual and print media produced to support the socialist state-sponsored campaign against snail fever – the longest anti-zoonotic campaign in China – I adopt a cross-media approach to campaign media. Unpacking the environmental unconscious in campaign media, I advance the concept of compost media to intervene in environmental media studies by going beyond critiquing the Capitaloscene, and revealing socialist campaign media as quintessential to environmental media.