---
title: 建設馬來亞 / 破壞馬來亞 (Building Malaya / Destroying Malaya)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/building-and-destroying-malaya-1953/
description: A Chinese-language poster shows a muscular, smiling farmer hoeing under a partly cropped sign ending 'BHARU', captioned 'Build Malaya', above a haggard…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![建設馬來亞 / 破壞馬來亞 (Building Malaya / Destroying Malaya)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/building-and-destroying-malaya-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/building-and-destroying-malaya-1953.jpg)

# 建設馬來亞 / 破壞馬來亞 (Building Malaya / Destroying Malaya)

A Chinese-language poster shows a muscular, smiling farmer hoeing under a partly cropped sign ending 'BHARU', captioned 'Build Malaya', above a haggard man in a red-star cap slumped in dark undergrowth, captioned 'Destroy Malaya'. A stamp reads 'Free peoples join forces to build a free world'. The tells: harm to the country is assigned wholly to the guerrilla figure, and the stamp supplies the virtue words.

- **Date:** 1953
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency poster series distributed in Asia (Chinese-language edition)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Eisenhower Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=eisenhower-administration)
- **Leader:** [Dwight D. Eisenhower](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=dwight-d-eisenhower)
- **Audience:** [Foreign public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=foreign-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [Malayan Emergency](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=malayan-emergency)
- **Techniques:** [Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- **Source:** [U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 306, series 'Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia' (NAID 1767935)](https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5729918), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA use restriction 'Unrestricted') U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency; National Archives, Records of the U.S. Information Agency (RG 306).

## Text on the object

Original (Chinese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
自由人民
合力建設
自由世界

建設馬來亞

破壞馬來亞

[on the sign, partly cropped:] …REA BHARU
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Free peoples / join forces to build / a free world

Build Malaya

Destroy Malaya

[sign:] …REA BHARU
```

Traditional characters. The two headlines and the three columns of the stamp are set right to left. The sign is cut off by the frame. Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Les communistes pris en flagrant délit de mensonge (The Communists Caught in the Act of Lying)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communists-caught-lying-1952/) ['Mossadeq's Spy Service' (CIA-prepared propaganda text, Iran, 1953) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cia-mossadeq-spy-service-1953/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation by the Queen in Council, to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India (printed sheet, Allahabad, 1 November 1858)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/queens-proclamation-to-the-people-of-india-1858/) (Nov 1, 1858 · Glittering generalities, Scapegoating)
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Negro Rule" vampire cartoon with sworn affidavit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/negro-rule-vampire-1900/) (Jul 4, 1900 · Accusation in a mirror, Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Racist "Negro Rule" caricature.
- [Японский Император и его лукавые доброжелатели (The Japanese Emperor and His Cunning Well-Wishers): Russian Russo-Japanese War print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japanese-mikado-cunning-well-wishers-1904/) (1904 · Name-calling, Scapegoating)
- [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/) (Apr 12, 1913 · Bandwagon, Scapegoating). Content note: Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy.