弄巧成拙

Pronunciation: nòng qiǎo chéng zhuō Literal meaning: Playing clever becomes clumsy

Origin & Usage

Huang Tingjian used the phrase alongside the older image of drawing a snake and adding feet: working at cleverness (弄巧) and producing clumsiness (成拙) instead. What it names is a specific mechanism rather than plain failure — the harm comes from the sophistication itself, so a simpler attempt would have succeeded. Over-engineered plans, excuses that are too well constructed, gifts chosen with too much thought.

Examples

English: "His elaborate excuse backfired and made things worse."

Chinese: 他精心编造的借口弄巧成拙，让事情变得更糟。