Awareness of certain types of cancer can be boosted by media coverage of the experiences of famous personalities. In the UK uptake of mammographic screening increased after the singer Kylie Minogue’s well documented breast cancer,1 2 and there was a similar surge in screening for cervical cancer associated with the illness and death of celebrity Jade Goody.3 An analogous example occurred in China in 2007 and provides an interesting link between the classic vernacular literature of that country and present day Chinese public health campaigns.