前门 (Qián mén) — front door, front gate; (figurative) open and aboveboard dealing, transparent procedure (contrasted with 后门)
Definition
A literal 'front door/gate', and figuratively 'open, aboveboard dealings' — as opposed to 后门 ('back door'), which means using connections or unfair shortcuts. Use 前门 to stress doing things the proper, transparent way.
noun
front doorfront gate(figurative) open and aboveboard dealingtransparent procedure (contrasted with 后门)
Examples
- 前门，。Zhè ge dà lóu de Qián mén zài zuǒ biān, hòu mén zài yòu biān.The front door of this building is on the left, and the back door is on the right.
- 前门，。Bàn shì yào jiǎng Qián mén, bù néng zǒng xiǎng zǒu hòu mén.When handling affairs, you should be transparent and not always think about using backdoor methods.
- 前门，。Gōng sī tí chàng Qián mén jiāo yì, dù jué yí qiè àn xiāng cāo zuò.The company promotes transparent transactions and prohibits all behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Appears in
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