Abstract:

To protect people’s lives and health and get rid of the contempt of “sick man of East Asia”, new China launched a schistosomiasis control campaign on a grand and spectacular scale in during 1949-1956 under the complex domestic and international background. With the imagination of a series of metaphorical concepts and the establishment of social mobilization mechanism, the practice of schistosomiasis control campaign has become a significant process for the establishment of a new individual and a new country of socialism. The application of technological politics of “mass science” in the campaign established the subjectivity of the people in a socialist country. The idea of “the people as the subject” runs through the whole process of the campaign and constitutes the basic operation logic of the four major health work guidelines. The concept of “the people’s health first” and the prevention and control method with “the people as the subject” are the important political core of the success of the schistosomiasis control movement. This health campaign suggests that the current public health construction should not only renewed emphasis on the concept of “prevention first”, but also adhere to the supremacy of the people’s health and give full play to the active role of the people in health and epidemic prevention.

Key words: schistosomiasis control campaign, the people’s health, body, metaphor