For many of us, cartoon strips are simply one of our pastimes. The popular Japanese manga  provides us with an escape from reality into a world of fantasy, adventure and romance.With much less text and pictures running for pages, it fits perfectly into today's fast, throwing away city lifestyle. But Tsai Chih-chung,a famous Taiwanese illustrator  , doesn't agree.He believes cartoons can be a bridge connecting traditional Chinese culture and wisdom with the modern  world in a much wittier and more acceptable way. He has interpreted Lao Zi, Confucius, Mencius,Zhuang Zi and Sun Zi and made their works accessible to a global audience. He has also produced two books about Zen  , introducing oriental philosophy. His cartoons are humorous yet full of wisdom and are admired as an easy way to learn Chinese classics. After avoiding the public for ten years, Tsai made a comeback in late April with seven new works. But does his age, 61, work as a gap between him and his young readers? Tsai doesn't think so. The topics he has covered range from philosophy in a time of individuality to the learning and memorizing techniques used at school. "Every child is a genius and has the potential beyond his own imagination, " he said. If popular Japanese manga is purely for entertainment, Tsai's work, to a large extent, is to light the power of thinking in a light-hearted way. Tsai uses differenr forms of water to refer to people. In his eyes some people are like an ocean, some are like vapor, while others may be ice or rain. But in essence they share a similarity-human being's forever chasing for the true and the good. "The person who thinks over life issues is not necessarily a scholar or a philosopher," he said. "I've dedicated my whole life to thinking and individual freedom, not making a living." In Tsai Chih-chung's opinion, cartoon   _   .
connects traditional Chinese culture and wisdom helps connect Chinese classics with modern world uses a wiser and acceptable way to draw cartoons builds up a bridge between cartoons and illustration