When I was a child, I read a story which told of a man sold ancient paintings. One of the paintings he was selling was of a shepherd boy trying to pull a buffalo across a bridge.

Facing toward the buffalo and tilting his body backward to pull the buffalo, the shepherd boy's strength was vividly depicted. A passerby appreciated this painting very much, but he did not have enough money with him at the time, so he went home to get the money.

After hanging the painting and taking a closer look at it, the vendor found that the painting lacked the rope that the boy needed to pull the buffalo. He regarded it as a defect and picked up a brush pen to paint a rope on the painting.

As soon as the customer came back, he noticed the rope added by the vendor and did not want to buy the painting anymore. He said to the vendor, "The reason I wanted to buy this painting was that I could feel the existence of the rope without it having been painted on the painting."

It dawned on me that the Chinese have a unique way of thinking. The structure of Chinese language and thought do not follow Western formal logic. Instead, one simply describes several points. As to how to connect the points to form the curve, that would be the reader's business. As an old Chinese idiom states, "one should say what one is supposed to say, and nothing more."

Therefore, in terms of information theory or computer jargon, it can be said that the structure of Chinese language and thought belongs to the category of "compressed codes." As a result of this characteristic, among the documents printed in the five official languages by the United Nations, the Chinese version is always the thinnest.

Tao Te Ching, the foundation of the Taoism, consists of merely 5000 Chinese characters and 81 chapters in which each chapter only talks about one point. Superficially, it seems as though there is no connection among the points in chapters and sections. Readers are thus required to construct continuity through their own enlightenment. The same can also be said for Confucius' Analects.

With regard to these examples, one can see a similar concept in traditional Chinese paintings, in which some spaces are left blank purposely so as to allow viewers to construct a complete picture through their own imagination and enlightenment. However, it is very rare to see any blanks in Western oil paintings.

Similarly, western dance requires strict accuracy of movements, while traditional Chinese dance actually requires something different--something difficult to put in words. The requirements for movements in traditional Chinese dance may not be as strict as those of Western dance, but perhaps this leaves more room for the imagination. On the other hand, the performer's state of mind is revealed through the demeanour of his or her face and body movements.

This year, NTD TV's shows "Holiday Wonders" provide unique opportunities to experience the genuine Chinese culture during the holiday season. I have been watching the shows for a few years and have been fascinated by the magnificence of the backdrops, the abundant imagination, the marvelous music, the splendor of the costumes, and the actors' great skill. I often associated it with the Chinese nation's 5,000-year civilization and its traditional culture--a culture full of myths and legends, and based on morality and compassion.

The impact of the shows did not merely penetrate my senses, but went much further, resonating deep in my soul. The shows revive our intrinsic human nature--something difficult to describe with words.