画蛇添足 (huà shé tiān zú) — to overdo something, ruining the effect; to add something superfluous

Definition

Examples

• 这篇文章本来很简洁，最后又加了一段解释，反而画蛇添足了。
  Zhè piān wén zhāng běn lái hěn jiǎn jié, zuì hòu yòu jiā le yí duàn jiě shì, fǎn ér huà shé tiān zú le.
  This article was originally concise, but adding an explanation at the end actually ruined it.
• 你已经在结尾说出了重点，再补充例子就是画蛇添足。
  Nǐ yǐ jīng zài jié wěi shuō chū le zhòng diǎn, zài bǔ chōng lì zi jiù shì huà shé tiān zú.
  You already made the key point at the end; adding examples would be overkill.
• 婚礼布置已经够漂亮了，放太多装饰反而画蛇添足。
  Hūn lǐ bù zhì yǐ jīng gòu piào liang le, fàng tài duō zhuāng shì fǎn ér huà shé tiān zú.
  The wedding decoration was already beautiful enough; adding too many ornaments ruined the effect.