---
title: 'The Communist Party: Before and After (Chinese reversible face)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/chinese-face-before-after-1953/
description: A line drawing of a smiling face that, turned upside down, becomes a frowning one.
section: Collection
---

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

**Content note:** Exaggerated theatre-mask style drawing of a smiling face that inverts into a frowning one. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![The Communist Party: Before and After (Chinese reversible face)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/chinese-face-before-after-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/chinese-face-before-after-1953.jpg)

# The Communist Party: Before and After (Chinese reversible face)

A line drawing of a smiling face that, turned upside down, becomes a frowning one. The upright caption reads 'before the Communist Party came' and the inverted caption 'after the Communist Party came'. The device compresses a whole political change into one before-and-after trick; it states a verdict and gives no fact to check.

## Text on the object

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

```
後之了來黨產共

前之來未黨產共

[the sheet carries two identical copies side by side, each with the upside-down line above the face and the upright line below it]
```

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

```
After the Communist Party came [inverted line; reads 共產黨來了之後 once turned 180 degrees]

Before the Communist Party came [upright line; reads 共產黨未來之前 right to left]

[The sheet carries two identical copies side by side.]
```

The characters are transcribed in the order they appear left to right on the sheet; read right to left the lower line is 共產黨未來之前, and the upper line, turned 180 degrees, reads 共產黨來了之後. FRAME translation (machine, not fluent-reader verified).

[← 蘇俄不肯全力援助中共 (Soviet Russia Is Unwilling to Give China Full Aid), leaflet 7230](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-command-stalin-withholds-aid-leaflet-7230-1953/) [共產黨未來之前 / 共產黨來了之後 (Before the Communist Party Came / After the Communist Party Came), U.S. turn-it-over face card →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/communist-party-before-after-face-usia-1953/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (Kingdom of England · 1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [The Virginia Argus, "Letter to Mazzei" and rebuttal, 16 September 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/virginia-argus-letter-to-mazzei-1800/) (United States · Sep 16, 1800 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Examiner, No. 608, 22 August 1819, 'Disturbances at Manchester' (Peterloo)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/examiner-disturbances-at-manchester-1819/) (United Kingdom · Aug 22, 1819 · Card stacking)
- [Punch, 'Laurels at Ningpo' column on the First Opium War, 1842](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/punch-laurels-at-ningpo-1842/) (United Kingdom · 1842 · Card stacking). Content note: Period satirical prose describing the killing of Chinese soldiers at Ningpo in graphic terms, using period terms such as 'pig-tail' for Chinese people.
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Peru · Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [New York Journal and Advertiser, front page, 17 February 1898 ($50,000 reward, Maine 'work of an enemy')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ny-journal-maine-destroyed-enemy-1898/) (United States · Feb 17, 1898 · Card stacking)