---
title: 成功 / 失敗 (Success / Failure), U.S. two-panel poster
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/success-and-failure-two-panel-usia-poster-1953/
description: 'A two-panel Chinese-language poster split on a diagonal. Upper panel, titled ''Success'': a schoolboy with a satchel, a young man receiving a rolled…'
section: Collection
---

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

[![成功 / 失敗 (Success / Failure), U.S. two-panel poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/success-and-failure-two-panel-usia-poster-1953.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/success-and-failure-two-panel-usia-poster-1953.jpg)

# 成功 / 失敗 (Success / Failure), U.S. two-panel poster

A two-panel Chinese-language poster split on a diagonal. Upper panel, titled 'Success': a schoolboy with a satchel, a young man receiving a rolled diploma from a bespectacled man, and a large smiling face in a mortarboard. Lower panel, titled 'Failure': a ragged bearded man with a red star on his cap crawling toward a distant lake. A seal reads 'Free people jointly build a free world'. A graduation scene is set against a ragged crawling figure, with no place or figure given (card-stacking).

## Text on the object

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

```
成功
失敗
自由人民
合力建設
自由世界
```

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

```
Success
Failure
Free people / jointly build / a free world
```

Title lettering in white; seal in red and white with lines read right to left. Translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.

[← Contentment and Loathing (Chinese two-panel poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/contentment-and-revulsion-chinese-1953/) [Don't Sell Your Vote! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-sell-your-vote-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)