among the people / popular / folk / non-governmental / involving people rather than governments

pronunciation / literary (rather than colloquial) pronunciation of a Chinese character

(idiom) with real guns and live ammunition; (fig.) for real (involving genuine action rather than rehearsal, simulation or theory); (coll.) to have actual sex; to go all the way

speech sounds / pronunciation / colloquial (rather than literary) pronunciation of a Chinese character / phonetic / audio / voice / (Internet) to voice chat / voice message

rather than... (used in expressions of the form 與其｜与其 + {verb1} + 不如 + {verb2} "rather than {verb1}, better to {verb2}")

(of alcohol, love etc) to go to one's head; (of an idea, a song etc) to get into one's head; to capture one's attention / (old) (of a girl on her wedding day) to start wearing one's hair in a bun (rather than a plait)

willingness / would rather (agree to X than Y)

not to reject a word because of the speaker (idiom, from Analects); to judge on the merits of the case rather than preference between advisers

(allusion to Tao Qian 陶潛｜陶潜, who used this phrase when he resigned from government service rather than show subservience to a visiting inspector) to bow and scrape for five pecks of rice (that being a part of his salary as a local magistrate) / (fig.) to compromise one's principles for the sake of a salary

would rather ... (than ...)

extroverted / outgoing / to play audio through speakers (rather than through earphones) / (old) to appoint to a post outside the capital

central air conditioning / (fig.) (neologism) ladies' man (contrasted with 暖男, a guy who is attentive to his partner rather than to all and sundry)

record of actual events / documentary (factual rather than fictional)

literary (rather than colloquial) pronunciation of a Chinese character

travel organized by oneself rather than in a tour group

to give up life for righteousness (idiom, from Mencius) / to choose honor over life; would rather sacrifice one's life than one's principles

to eat individual meals (rather than taking one's food from plates served to everyone at the table)

rather die than submit (idiom)

to value righteousness rather than material gain (idiom)

It is better to squash enmity rather than keeping it alive (proverb)

commodity grain (grain produced as a commodity rather than for self-sufficiency)

work done in the field (rather than in the office or at the headquarters); fieldwork / field personnel; fieldworker

to seek the cause in oneself rather than sb else

born of a concubine (rather than of the wife)

lit. the humiliation of having to crawl between the legs of one's adversary (as Han Xin 韓信｜韩信 supposedly did rather than engage in a sword fight) (idiom) / fig. (endure) utter humiliation

better to just get the pain over with, rather than prolong the agony

lit. to guard a tree-stump, waiting for rabbits (idiom) / to wait idly for opportunities / to trust to chance rather than show initiative

"infusion clan", patients who prefer medication by drip rather than orally or by injection etc

(idiom) the dignity of authority is above life; one must be willing to sacrifice one's life rather than disobey a military order

brick and mortar business / physical (rather than online) retail store

(of one's political views) to prefer left rather than right (idiom during the Cultural Revolution)

(slang) to put in long hours, typically late into the night, playing a video game (rather than pay for power-ups)

a man (rather than a woman)

one's age, according to the traditional Chinese method of reckoning (i.e. the number of Chinese calendar years in which one has lived) – In this system, a person's age at birth is one, and increases by one at the beginning of the first solar term 立春 each year, rather than on one's birthday. / contrasted with 實歲｜实岁

to read extensively and thoroughly / nonstandard pronunciation of a Chinese character, e.g. the reading [hao4] in 愛好｜爱好 rather than the usual [hao3]

to vow to die rather than obey (idiom)

to install (hardware) internally (rather than plugging it in as a peripheral) / (math.) to interpolate / interpolation

lit. would rather be a chicken's head than a phoenix's tail (idiom) / fig. to prefer to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond

(Buddhism, Daoism) to deliver all sentient beings from suffering / (Tw) a ritual of making offerings, esp. to wandering spirits rather than gods or ancestors (abbr. for 中元普渡)

lit. the person from Zheng 鄭｜郑 who wanted to buy shoes (an allusion to an ancient story about somebody who, when buying a pair of shoes, preferred to rely on their foot measurements rather than just trying them on) (idiom) / fig. disregarding the sensible approach in favor of adherence to a fixed idea

simplified form of 諮 (Note: In practice, 咨 is usually used in simplified Chinese rather than 谘, even though 咨 is not officially designated as the simplified form of 諮.)

lit. the elbow turns outward (idiom) / fig. to side with outsiders rather than one's own people

to reject a word because of the speaker (idiom, from Analects); to judge on preference between advisers rather than the merits of the case

rather destroy ten temples than a single marriage (idiom)

to suggest (rather than depict in detail) / freehand style of Chinese painting, characterized by bold strokes rather than accurate details

to treat the symptoms rather than getting to the root of the problem (proverb) / reactive (rather than proactive)

rime dictionary (ancient type of Chinese dictionary that collates characters by tone and rhyme rather than by radical)

to treat the symptoms / reactive (rather than proactive)

double income family who have pets rather than children (see also 丁克)

colloquial (rather than literary) pronunciation of a Chinese character

Yelü Chucai (1190-1244), Khitan statesman and advisor to Genghis Khan and Ögödei Khan, known for convincing the Mongols to tax the conquered population of the north China plains rather than slaughter it

(idiom) to refer to sth by the name its owners use / to refer to a place by the name its inhabitants use (e.g. refer to Seoul as 首爾｜首尔 rather than 漢城｜汉城)

a reading of a written Chinese word derived from a synonym (typically, a vernacular synonym) (e.g. in Mandarin, 投子 may be pronounced as its synonym 色子, and in Wu dialects, 二 is pronounced as its synonym 兩｜两 "liahn") / to pronounce a word using such a reading / (Japanese linguistics) kun-reading, a pronunciation of a kanji derived from a native Japanese word that matches its meaning rather than from the pronunciation of the character in a Sinitic language at the time it was imported from China (Note: A kun-reading of a character is distinguished from its on-reading(s) 音讀｜音读. For example, 山 has a kun-reading "yama" and an on-reading "san".)