When Cheng won the National Arts and Culture Award in 1997, he received the following tribute: "He is straightforward by nature, and portrays a wide range of subject matters, often drawing for material on the experience of life as it is lived here [in Taiwan], while maintaining the traditional elegance of brush-and-ink art.
第一屆國家文藝獎頒給他的得獎理由中說他「性情率真，創作題材廣泛，常取材於本土的現世生活，兼具傳統筆墨的優雅特質。