墙头草

牆頭草
qiángtóucǎo
noun #30,608

Meanings

  1. 1 fence-sitter
  2. 2 opportunist
  3. 3 person who bends to whichever side has the advantage
  4. 4 (literally) grass on top of a wall

Examples

Tā shì gè qiángtóucǎo, shéi yǒu quán jiù gēn shéi.
He's a fence-sitter — he sides with whoever's in power.
Zuòrén bù néng dāng qiángtóucǎo.
You can't go through life as an opportunist with no convictions.

Tips

memory
Vivid metaphor: grass growing on top of an old wall has nothing anchoring it sideways, so it bends whichever way the wind happens to blow. The full proverbial form is 墙头草两边倒 (qiángtóucǎo, liǎngbiān dǎo) — 'wall-top grass, leans both ways' — applied to politicians, employees, or anyone who lacks loyalty.
register
Strongly pejorative — calling someone a 墙头草 is an accusation of cowardice and disloyalty, not a neutral observation. Compare the milder 使 'set the sail by the wind,' which can be admiring of pragmatism in some contexts.

Stroke Order

qiáng
tóu
cǎo