暗箱 (àn xiāng) — (noun) camera bellows; dark chamber (photography); (noun, figurative) black box; secretive, non-transparent operation (often in 暗箱操作)
Definition
Literally 'dark box' (the bellows/dark chamber of a camera), but in modern usage it almost always means a 'black box' — hidden, non-transparent process, usually paired with 操作 (暗箱操作).
noun
camera bellowsdark chamber (photography)(noun, figurative) black boxsecretivenon-transparent operation (often in 暗箱操作)
Examples
- 暗箱。Zhè tái lǎo shì xiàng jī de àn xiāng yǐ jīng pò sǔn le.The bellows on this old camera are already damaged.
- 暗箱。Zhè cì xuǎn jǔ bèi zhǐ zé yǒu àn xiāng cāo zuò.This election was accused of having backroom dealings.
- ，暗箱。Zhèng fǔ yāo qiú gōng kāi zhāo biāo guò chéng, bì miǎn àn xiāng.The government requires the bidding process to be open, to avoid black-box operations.
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