Cheng Tsai-tung was born in Taipei in 1953, had lived in New York and was influenced by western Surrealism, he was more interested in the basic relations between objects rather than the object itself, therefore he rarely paints any actual objects in his paintings, he often composes his pictures with only part of an object in it, later he uses a lot of iconographic techniques. His brush strokes are similar to Chinese traditional portrait paintings, cold and lonely, like paintings by Ma Yuan from Sung, and Xia Gui from Shia dynasty.

During these years, Cheng painted a lot of self-portraits and family member portraits which narrated the painter and his family and friend's life. "Self-portrait in a Red Vest" reveals a life that is flat and innocent, also mingled with unspeakable sadness, the whole picture is succinct and lively, with clear outlines, and bright colors, he used brushes with fluffy brush hairs, with shades and two dimensional arrangements, made the character in the picture as if from the past, and reveals hope and dreams.

"My paintings are like my private diary, it recorded many periods of life and the struggle and fantasy when facing them, I borrowed some incidents or objects to paint those indiscernible pictures deep inside me. I just simply adore what feels to paint from my within."

Cheng as a persisting complex about traditional culture spirits, he adores traditional Chinese culture and interprets them in contemporary way, with his taste in life, and the adjustments for his creation forms, he expressed his confusion between himself, tradition, and the reality, further formed a life that carries art. Cheng Tsai-tung's recent neo-landscape paintings used a lot of ink as the base color for the background, replaced traditional white spaces that were arranged for spaces and clouds; therefore he made a very unique visual arrangement.