---
title: Entertainment and Depression (Chinese-language poster distributed in Asia)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/entertainment-and-depression-chinese-1953/
description: A Chinese-language two-panel poster. The upper panel shows a lit cinema screen with two riders on horseback and a silhouetted audience below.
section: Collection
---

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3. Entertainment and Depression

[![Entertainment and Depression, 1953 US poster: A Chinese-language two-panel poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/entertainment-and-depression-chinese-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/entertainment-and-depression-chinese-1953.jpg)

# Entertainment and Depression (Chinese-language poster distributed in Asia)

A Chinese-language two-panel poster. The upper panel shows a lit cinema screen with two riders on horseback and a silhouetted audience below, captioned 歡樂 ('joy'). The lower round panel shows a figure in a star-badged cap against a tree in a rainy forest, captioned 凉淒 ('bleak'). A seal at upper left carries the slogan 'free people together build a free world'. The tell is card-stacking: two selected scenes are set side by side as a complete contrast.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
歡樂
凉淒

[seal, columns read right to left:]
自由人民
合力建設
自由世界
```

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

```
Joy. / Bleak (desolate). / Seal: Free people, together build, a free world.
```

Seal columns are read right to left. The second caption is printed 凉淒.

[← Burma-American Mutual Aid: Burma's Gift to U.S. Flood Areas (Burmese-language poster distributed in Burma)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/burma-americas-flood-relief-gift-burmese-1953/) [聯合國日 十月廿四日 (United Nations Day, October 24; Chinese poster distributed in Asia; NARA title 'U.N. Day Poster') →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/un-day-poster-chinese-flag-and-building-1953/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.