hanzi characters mean "everlasting life"... i'm a catholic, and believe fully in life after death if that makes any sense. These two characters are the last two words in the Chinese bible of John 3:16 , as well as in the apostles creed in Chinese.
theres a lot of symbols in the dragon as well. the eyes are not colored because in China, we have a saying that if one colors in the eyes in a painting, the dragon will fly away. Also there are claws with only 2 or 3 fingers because there is a saying that dragons lose fingers the further they travel from china. Im a big traveler :).