一夜成名
yī yè chéng míng
to become famous overnight
Character by character
一yī
one
one
夜yè
night
night
成chéng
become
become
名míng
famous
famous
Example
她在街头唱歌的视频被人传到网上，没想到一夜成名。
Someone put a video of her singing in the street online, and to her surprise she became famous overnight.
Tone: neutral.
Usage and origin
Common in news about entertainers, viral videos and start-ups. It often hints that the fame came suddenly, perhaps by luck, and may not last; 不鸣则已，一鸣惊人 (lesson 3-17) gives more credit to a real achievement.
Learn this in Lesson 72 · HSK 6: DeepSeek与大模型 (DeepSeek and the AI race)
A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.
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