Chinese word

往事

Pronunciation

Pinyinwǎng shì

Meaning

  • nounpast events

Example

那张照片让她想起了往事。nà zhāng zhào piān ràng tā xiáng qǐ le wǎng shì

That photo reminded her of past events.

Illustration for 往事 (past events)

More examples

经过多年努力，她终于学会放下往事，开始新的生活。jīng guò duō nián nǔ lì tā zhōng yú xué huì fàng xià wǎng shì kāi shǐ xīn de shēng huó

After years of effort, she finally learned to let go of past events and began a new life.

Core concept

Earlier events kept in memory as a meaningful stretch of lived experience.

Common phrases

  • 放下往事fàng xià wǎng shì

    let go of past events

  • 怀念往事huái niàn wǎng shì

    remember the past fondly

Similar words

过去guò qù: Any earlier time or anything that happened before the present.
回忆huí yì: A personal remembrance of an event or experience from the past.
记忆jì yì: The mental record of remembered facts, events, or information.
往昔wǎng xī: The distant past seen as an earlier age or era.

Definition in Chinese

指已经过去发生的事情，尤指留在人们记忆中并常带有怀旧或感慨的色彩的往昔经历。zhǐ yǐ jīng guò qù fā shēng de shì qíng yóu zhǐ liú zài rén men jì yì zhōng bìng cháng dài yǒu huái jiù huò gán kǎi de sè cǎi de wǎng xī jīng lì

Word origin

往 (wǎng, "past") + 事 (shì, "event") frames earlier events as things that have already gone by.

Usage tips

  • In everyday conversation, this noun has a reflective or nostalgic tone, so it suits remembered experiences more than a neutral reference to time.

Other meanings

  • the pastnoun
  • old daysnoun

Opposites

Word lists with this word