Feng Zicun

Also known as Nicknamed Chuipotian ("Blow the Sky Apart")

Feng Zicun was born to a farming family in Yangyuan, Hebei, in 1904 and learned the flute from his elder brother, playing for a village stilt-walking troupe as a boy. At seventeen he went to Baotou, where he absorbed the music of errentai and the local mountain songs and their ornaments, earning the nickname Chuipotian, 'Blow the Sky Apart'. He later formed troupes that toured the Zhangjiakou region. After performing at the 1953 national folk music and dance festival he became a soloist with the Central Song and Dance Ensemble, and from 1964 taught at the China Conservatory of Music. His best-known pieces, Xi Xiang Feng and Wu Bangzi, arranged from errentai tunes, and Flying a Kite became staples of northern-school dizi. He died in 1987.