Hudson Chen

Untranslatable

In Chinese, there is a word, an idea, an idiomatic expression, a concept that has been distilled into four characters: 画龙点睛 (huà lóng diǎn jīng), which literally means “to paint the dragon and dot the eyes.” This phrase derives from an old story about an artist who paints a dragon without eyes, fearing that it will fly away if he completes it. When he finally does add the eyes, the dragon indeed comes to life and flies off. Beneath the literal translation is the deeper meaning: how a crucial detail or finishing touch can transform something from ordinary to extraordinary, bring it to life, and make it complete.