开场白
kāi chǎng bái · HSK 7
opening remarks
🎭 开场白 = open + stage/scene + spoken-lines (白 = stage speech) = the opening lines
Decompose: 开 open + 场 scene/venue + 白. Here 白 is not white but the theater sense spoken lines (as in 独白 monologue, 道白 dialogue). Together: the spoken lines that open a scene, i.e. a prologue or opening remarks.
开 — two hands 廾 + door 门 (open gate)
Originally written 開, showing two hands (廾) lifting the bar (一) off a gate (門) to open it. The simplified form 开 keeps the two-hands element and drops the gate. Core meaning 'to open' extended to 'start, operate, bloom'.
场 — earth 土 + 昜 (bright/rising)
Originally a flat open ground used for sun-drying grain or for ritual offerings, hence 土 'earth' as the meaning component. 昜 supplies the sound and hints at an open, sunlit space. The meaning broadened to any open area or venue, and as cháng it still refers to a threshing floor or a session/spell of something.
白 — pictograph; resembles 日 (sun) with a stroke on top
白 is generally considered a pictograph, traditionally explained as depicting the sun rising with a ray of light above it, hence the meaning 'white' or 'bright.' Some scholars instead see it as a drawing of a thumbnail or an acorn. From 'bright' it extended to 'clear,' 'plain,' and 'to state plainly.'