ABSTRACT
Years of experience have shown that the successful introduction of family planning into a rural, tradition-bound society essentially depends on how efficiently the authorities can educate and motivate the targeted population. Arguments relating to national interests, for example, seldom carry any weight when they are directed at peasants whose personal well-being is much more likely to be secured through a larger rather than a smaller family and through male rather than female offspring. But while China's impressive family planning successes in the 1970s have, to a large extent, resulted from innovative methods of communication and motivation (discussed in the introductory article), she has also continued to rely on the more orthodox means of persuasion, such as the media, pamphlets, posters, lantern slides, personal testimonies, and so forth. Included in this potpourri are skits, songs, and dialogues put on by local communities for the entertainment and edification of the populace.
