Definition
物是人非 is a literary four-character idiom that laments how physical surroundings remain unchanged while the people from those times have moved on, aged, or passed away. It's used to express a nostalgic sadness when revisiting a familiar place and finding that the people you remember are no longer there. The literal meaning — 'things are the same, people are different' — captures the surface, but the emotional weight is closer to 'everything is the same except the people we once knew'.
idiom
things remain the same but the people have changed (expressing nostalgia over loss or passage of time)
Examples
- ，，物是人非。Huí dào mǔxiào, yīqiè dōu hái shì lǎo yàngzi, dàn zǎoyǐ wù shì rén fēi le.Returning to my old school, everything was still the same, but the people had long since changed.
- ，物是人非，。Fān kāi lǎo zhàopiàn, bùjīn gǎntàn wù shì rén fēi, céngjīng de péngyou dōu yǐ gè bēn dōngxī.Flipping through old photos, I couldn't help but sigh about how things remained while people had scattered in all directions.
- ，物是人非，。Gōngyuán hái shì nà ge gōngyuán, kě wù shì rén fēi, péi wǒ wánshuǎ de huǒbàn zǎoyǐ bùzhī qùxiàng.The park is still the same park, but the playmates who used to be with me have long since disappeared without a trace.
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