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草臺班子

简草台班子 · 繁草臺班子

Mandarin · pinyin cǎo tái bān zi

small, poorly-equipped theatrical troupe that tours small towns and villages
(fig.) makeshift band of individuals
rough and ready outfit

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Characters in this entry

草: cǎo · grass, straw, thatch, herbs
臺: Look up this written character
班: bān · class, group, grade; squad; job
子: zǐ · offspring, child; fruit, seed of; first earthly branch
台: tái · platform; unit; term of address

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–2–1–5 · cao3 tai2 ban1 zi5

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

草臺班子 · find source passages ↗ · 草台班子 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

(Mainland China, literal, theater) small troupe touring rural areas
(figurative) makeshift, poorly-equipped or ad-hoc team

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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