反串

Mandarin · pinyin fǎn chuàn

Meanings

  1. (Chinese opera) to play a role outside of one's specialty
  2. (modern) to play a transvestite role
  3. to masquerade as an opponent
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Characters in this entry

反
fǎn · reverse, opposite, contrary, anti
串
chuàn · string; relatives; conspire
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–4 · fan3 chuan4

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

faan2 cyun3

Cantonese word readings for 反串. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

verb

  1. to play a role one does not usually play in a performance, often of the opposite gender
  2. (Internet) to mimic and ridicule the members of a specific community

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

反串 · fan3 chuan4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 18,277
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record反串 反串 [fan3 chuan4] /(Chinese opera) to play a role outside of one's specialty/(modern) to play a transvestite role/to masquerade as an opponent/