The talk examines the range of anti-official and unofficial voices that drew scrutiny from the Communist government during the Korean War campaign (1950-1953). Spread quickly by word of mouth, these voices had origins that authorities found difficult to trace and ramifications hard to control. Their unknown and mysterious quality may have irritated the revolutionary state, but they reveal the volatile urban informational space where the informal (and sometimes illegal) channels and practices competed with and contested the official propaganda. The talk studies the battle between the rising propaganda state and people’s efforts to evade it in the formative years of PRC.