








膝痒搔背 is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to make a misdirected or futile effort”. To address an irrelevant issue instead of the actual problem. Literally, “Knees itch, scratch the back”.

Create PNGs with pinyin, highlight character parts or remove strokes
Open the tool →
Chinese and English fill-in vocabulary worksheets
Open the tool →
Turn a Chinese character or sentence into a GIF or MP4
Open the tool →
Printable tracing sheets with a QR learning companion
Open the tool →膝痒搔背 (xī yǎng sāo bèi) is a Chinese idiom (chengyu) meaning “to make a misdirected or futile effort”.
膝痒搔背 is pronounced xī yǎng sāo bèi in Mandarin Chinese.
Literally, 膝痒搔背 means “Knees itch, scratch the back”. It is used to mean “to make a misdirected or futile effort”.
膝部发痒,却去搔背。比喻力量没有使在点子上。