The Naxi developed their special culture based on their religious belief, Dongpa. The Dongpa also refers to the elderly people who are at the center of this culture. The hieroglyphic characters they use are what we call Dongpa letters. A graphic designer, Katsumi Asaba introduced Dongpa letters to Japan, which made them familiar to us. Mr. Wang who guided us in the trip this time has also studied Dongpa letters for a long time. He published a book on the fruits of his studies. It's published in Japan , too.
The literatures and the signs written in hieroglyphic Dongpa letters are like a painting. The same letters can mean different things depending upon their colors and the locations they are written at.

For instance, the letter that means "a person" can mean "a gentle hearted person" if it's written in red. If it's written in yellow, the same letter means "a rich person". Texts in Dongpa letters are written from the top left of a sheet of paper. The meaning of the texts is expressed by the arrangement of the letters in various locations and orders. Therefore the meaning of the texts written in Dongpa letters tends to contain a great range of connotative meanings. We can say that they are the letters that are to be read with the imaginative inspirations of their readers.

As an editor, I've always believed that the most important purpose for writing something should be to transmit my idea or intention to the readers as properly and accurately as possible. Therefore I make efforts in order for my messages to be understood accurately by those who read them without leaving the possibility of misunderstandings. Dongpa letters, however, while they are trying to give some message to the readers but the way how to understand the messages written is up to the readers. As a result, images of the received messages become infinite.

Thanks to the development of digital technologies, the density of the information exchanged in our times has come to be very high with the combination of such multi-media tools as texts, visual images, data, sound and so on being effectively synthesized. There is no room there that allows receivers of information to understand it freely with their own imaginative power. All we can do is to accept carefully schemed information as it is and to consume it. Dongpa letters, on the other hand, with their great deal of connotative nature, have the grandeur and the generosity to leave the ways how to understand the messages to the readers. They are the very product of the great nature surrounding the city of Lijiang, I feel. It cannot but make me envy the Naxi people who have been living peacefully, using such , in a sense, ambiguous letters. I envy them for the great capacity of their heart. I also wonder if we can put such generosity as that of Dongpa letters into the digitalized information getting ever higher and ever more precise that we, people in this age are using.

By the way, Mr. Wang visited and stayed at the Research Center for Dongpa Culture and studied about Dongpa letters. He's still deeply engaged in the activities to preserve them.