Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2018
The one-child era, which lasted thirty-five years (1980–2015), was a unique period in Chinese (and even world) history. With the introduction of the universal two-child policy in 2016, China put an end to the age of the one-child policy. Since the policy change has come into effect, China's rural areas, which contain approximately 800 million people, have experienced a very particular historical phenomenon. Due to the changes in China's family planning policy, slogans painted on walls have evolved in terms of the messages they carry to grassroots rural areas. Once conveying China's family planning policy propaganda with, at times, a shocking and controversial tone, the wall slogans in rural areas have evolved with the wider changes to the country's family planning policy. However, this dying, unique way of communication between the government and rural areas is being consigned to the memory of the times of rural policy advocacy in China.