The Chinese word 倒流 (dàoliú) is a compound formed by combining two meaningful characters: 倒 (dào), which means "to reverse," "to pour," or "to fall," and 流 (liú), which means "to flow." Together, they create a verb-object structure where 倒 acts as an adverb modifying the verb 流, literally meaning "to flow in reverse" or "to flow backwards." This word is most commonly used metaphorically to describe phenomena that go against the normal direction or natural order, such as a river flowing upstream, time seeming to move backwards, or population movement from urban back to rural areas.