---
title: 利便 / 阻險 (Convenience / Hardship), U.S. two-panel poster
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/convenience-and-hardship-two-panel-usia-poster-1953/
description: 'A two-panel Chinese-language poster split on a diagonal. Upper panel, titled ''Convenience'': a blue bus with a licence plate, a woman boarding, a man with…'
section: Collection
---

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

[![利便 / 阻險 (Convenience / Hardship), U.S. two-panel poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/convenience-and-hardship-two-panel-usia-poster-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/convenience-and-hardship-two-panel-usia-poster-1953.jpg)

# 利便 / 阻險 (Convenience / Hardship), U.S. two-panel poster

A two-panel Chinese-language poster split on a diagonal. Upper panel, titled 'Convenience': a blue bus with a licence plate, a woman boarding, a man with a satchel, and a seal reading 'Free people jointly build a free world'. Lower panel, titled 'Hardship': two ragged men in red-star caps, one clawing along a cliff, one dangling from a rope, among bare vines. The viewer gets one best case set against one worst case; no place, year or measure is given (card-stacking).

## Text on the object

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

```
利便
阻險
自由人民
合力建設
自由世界
BA 9031
```

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

```
Convenience
Hardship [obstruction and peril]
Free people / jointly build / a free world
BA 9031 (bus licence plate)
```

Title lettering in white, seal in red and white; seal lines read right to left. The catalog title renders the lower title as 'Misery'. Translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Shooresh cartoon on the 1953 dissolution referendum: "155544 votes in favour" and opponents before gallows](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shooresh-referendum-gallows-cartoon-1953/) ["Perón cumple, Evita dignifica": the CGT tower, Buenos Aires, 1953 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peron-cumple-evita-dignifica-cgt-tower-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)