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
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.
- Date
- April 22, 1953
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (Asian poster series)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Leader
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Techniques
- Card stacking
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NAID 5729931); image copy via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5729931). Item page: Use Restriction Unrestricted.
Text on the object
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]
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).
