苦中作乐 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to find joy in sorrows ; to enjoy sth in spite of one's suffering

Character by character

• 苦kǔbitter; hardship, suffering
• 中zhōngcentral; center, middle; amidst; to hit (target),
• 作zuòto make; to write, to compose; to act, to perform
• 乐lècheerful, happy, laughing; music

Idioms sharing a character

• 不胜其苦 bù shèng qí kǔ
• 倒悬之苦 dào xuán zhī kǔ
• 备尝辛苦 bèi cháng xīn kǔ
• 刻苦耐劳 kè kǔ nài láo
• 千辛万苦 qiān xīn wàn kǔ
• 叫苦不迭 jiào kǔ bu dié
• 叫苦连天 jiào kǔ lián tiān
• 吃苦耐劳 chī kǔ nài láo
• 同甘共苦 tóng gān gòng kǔ
• 含辛茹苦 hán xīn rú kǔ

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.