The literal meaning of "Mingri Huanghua" is "the chrysanthemums of tomorrow (after the Double Ninth Festival)." It comes from Su Shi's poem "Nine Days, Matching the Rhyme of Wang Gong": "When we meet, there is no need to hurry back; tomorrow's chrysanthemums would make even butterflies sad." In ancient times, people admired chrysanthemums during the Double Ninth Festival. Once the festival passed, the chrysanthemums gradually withered, and even butterflies grieved over them. Therefore, "Mingri Huanghua" is a metaphor for something outdated or for people or things that have lost their original value and no longer attract attention. This idiom often carries a tone of regret, helplessness, or irony, and is mostly used to describe ideas, objects, news, and so on that were once popular but have now fallen behind the times. When using it, note that it emphasizes being "outdated" rather than "future," and it is easily confused with "Zuori Huanghua" (yesterday's chrysanthemums), but the correct form is "Mingri Huanghua." In terms of cultural background, it reflects the keen sensitivity of ancient Chinese people to the changing of seasons and the rise and decline of things, and it is also often used in literary criticism and analysis of social phenomena, reminding people to cherish the present and avoid being eliminated by the times.
📝 Example
1. The once-popular flip phone is now a thing of the past, with few people using it anymore. (A metaphor for something outdated and obsolete.)
2. His once-famous theory has become a thing of the past in the face of new technologies and is no longer valued by the academic community. (A metaphor for a theory that has lost its original value and is no longer in the spotlight.)