Let me tell you about one of the most embarrassing stories in Chinese literature. It involves a grown man, a famous city, and a complete inability to walk properly. The Chinese have been laughing at this guy for over two thousand years, and honestly, we probably should too — though perhaps with a little more self-reflection than we usually manage, because most of us have a little bit of this story living somewhere in our own histories.

The story is called 邯郸学步 — handan xué bù — which translates to “learning to walk in Handan.” It’s a four-character idiom that has become shorthand in Chinese for a very particular kind of spectacular failure: trying so hard to imitate someone else that you lose what made you distinctive in the first place. The phrase is used when someone tries to adopt a new skill or style and ends up losing their original ability entirely. It’s a warning, wrapped in an absurd anecdote, about the dangers of mindless imitation.