• Typically, if debtors fail to pay back their loans to loan sharks (also known as ah longs) on time, the loan sharks or their runners will paste such debt collection notices at the debtor’s residence or workplace.
• Personal information such as the debtor’s name and address are usually written on the big-character posters. Some posters will also include vulgarities, threats or insults to force the debtors to repay their debts.
• Putting up big-character posters is considered an act of vandalism. Once arrested, the offender will be convicted.

The police arrested three ladies on the 28th of this month and found 62 big-character posters in their possession. Preliminary investigations show that these three ladies were involved in another loan shark harassment case at Pasir Ris Drive 1. (Lianhe Zaobao, 30/4/2019)

• In China, the term “big-character poster” has another meaning that is different from the one used in Singapore. In China during the 1950s, the “四大” (four bigs or four big rights), consisting of “大鸣”, “大放”, “大字报” and “大辩论” were associated with the Rectification Movement. Big-character posters were also widely used during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. The use of big-character posters stopped entirely in the 1980s.