飞黄腾达 - fēihuángténgdá

[pattifranklin]

飞黄腾达 - fēihuángténgdá

I ran across this Chengyu and was told that it had several different meanings. My books say it is usually derogatory and satirical. But gives me this definition.

1. To rise metaphorically, to attain sudden success and honour。

My friend tried to explain that it could also be used this way.

2. 我以后一定要飞黄腾达。 (wo3yi3hou4yi2ding4yao4 fei1huang2teng2da2)

which means I am crazy for the idea that I am definitely gonna earn a lot of money in the future in the context of the current Chinese society.

Can anyone explain?

[feihu989]

i don't know why your book say that the Chengyu is derogatory and satirical. it's hard to say what is Fei huang teng da , it depends on the situation. for example , in ancient china , people get a high position officially called 飞黄腾达, and in nowdays, maybe you'll be called 飞黄腾达 if you made a lot of money.

And we usually use feihuangtengda to other people , in most cases we make a wish , wish sb feihuangtengda , it's not derogatory of course. as the tradition culture of chinese is very humility(too humility in my opinion) , we want to be feihuangtengda ,but we rarely refer the ChengYu to ourselves.

hope it helps:lol:

[Aweni]

hi,pattifranklin,

actually,i dont think "飞黄腾达" is too derogatory and satirical,

if someone achieved a great success in in the society all by him/her-self, we may say "he/she is 飞黄腾达 today" i think this is positive saying.

and your book says it is derogatory and satirical , in my opinion, because "飞黄腾达" usually means "becomeing a millionaire,getting the power and position", you know when relating to the "money","power"....pepople usually think it negative.and i think this is the reason.

so,sometimes this "chen yu" can be positive and negative, when we are talking we can tell it positive or negative through the speaker's tone.

[pattifranklin]

feihu989 and Aweni-

thank you both for replying to my question. I guess you can't always trust a text book. Thanks for setting me straight.

Patti