The dust is covered with rice
As a Chinese idiom, Pinyin is ch é ng à NGT ú f à n, which means children's games. It's a metaphor for something that's useless. It comes from the book of answering Tang Xun Xun Xun.
The origin of Idioms
According to Qian Qianyi's treatise on answering Tang's admonitions in the Qing Dynasty, "the folklore after the Southern Song Dynasty is like a piece of dust. Those who know a little about the taste can spit and abandon it."
Discrimination of words
Apply: mud. Soup made of dust, rice made of mud. Refers to children's games. It's a metaphor for something that's useless. [synonym]: dust and rice
Idiom usage
To be the subject or object; to refer to something that is taken as real
The dust is covered with rice
travel during the day and sleep at night - xiǎo xíng yè zhù
one 's eyes are not clear and one 's heart confused - yǎn huā xīn luàn
a floating family and a drifting abode - fú jiā fàn zhái