corrective influence / to reform (a criminal) / redemption (of a sinner) / to influence (a malefactor to a better life) / to guide sb back to the right path by repeated word and example
lit. to mend the pen after sheep are lost (idiom) / fig. to act belatedly / better late than never / to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted
to migrate to Beijing or Taipei in search of better job opportunities / migrant worker living and working in Beijing or Taipei without a residence permit
Cai E (1882-1916), military leader who was a key figure in the establishment the National Protection Army 護國軍|护国军[Hu4guo2jun1], which in 1916 fought the forces of Yuan Shikai 袁世凱|袁世凯[Yuan2 Shi4kai3], who had tried to reestablish the monarchy with himself as emperor
to feel as if it had happened to oneself / to sympathize / (polite expression of gratitude for a favor received by a friend etc) I take it as a personal favor
lit. the voice of the guest overwhelms that of the host (idiom) / fig. a minor player upstages the main attraction / minor details obscure the main point / the sauce is better than the fish
(slang) cockroach ("Little Qiang" was originally the name given to a dead cockroach that had supposedly been a pet of the lead character in the 1993 Hong Kong comedy movie "Flirting Scholar". Subsequently, it came to be used as a name for any cockroach, and also for characters in film and television who are seemingly indestructible or repeatedly resurrected.)
lit. cut sleeve (idiom) / fig. euphemism for homosexuality, originating from History of Western Han 漢書|汉书: emperor Han Aidi (real name Liu Xin) was in bed with his lover Dong Xian, and had to attend a court audience that morning. Not wishing to awaken Dong Xian, who was sleeping with his head resting on the emperor's long robe sleeve, Aidi used a knife to cut off the lower half of his sleeve.
lit. the fish swam away into the depths, the goose vanished in the distance (idiom) / fig. to have had no news (of sb who went away) / to have lost contact
May 7 cadre school (farm where urban cadres had to undertake manual labor and study ideology during the Cultural Revolution) (abbr. for 五七幹部學校|五七干部学校[Wu3 Qi1 Gan4 bu4 Xue2 xiao4])
May 7 Cadre School (farm where urban cadres had to undertake manual labor and study ideology during the Cultural Revolution) (abbr. to 五七幹校|五七干校[Wu3 Qi1 Gan4 xiao4])
lit. the happy fate of the man from Qi (who had a wife and a concubine) (idiom) / fig. (ironically) the joy of having several partners / the life of a pasha
to intentionally reinterpret a spoken expression as if one had misheard it, for the sake of humor (often, it is a phrase in a foreign language twisted into a similar-sounding phrase in one's native language with a completely different meaning) (orthographic borrowing from Japanese 空耳 "soramimi")
lit. the boot hits the floor (idiom) / fig. a much-anticipated, impactful development has finally occurred (an allusion to a joke from the 1950s in which a young man would take off a boot and throw it onto the floor, waking the old man sleeping downstairs who could then not get back to sleep until he had heard the second boot hit the floor)
lit. the Zhangs are better off than the Lis (idiom) / to gossip about the neighbors
The four tones
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