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表面文章

Mandarin · pinyin biǎo miàn wén zhāng

superficial show
going through the motions

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Characters in this entry

表: biǎo · show, express, manifest, display
面: miàn · face; surface; plane; side, dimension; Kangxi radical 176
文: wén · literature, culture, writing
章: zhāng · composition; chapter, section

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–2–1 · biao3 mian4 wen2 zhang1

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

biu2 min6 man4 zoeng1

Cantonese word readings for 表面文章. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) focus solely on form or appearance without emphasis on content or effectiveness; ostentatiousness

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

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