FENG Panda Books The Miraculous Pigtail Feng Jicai is one of China's best-known writers. Born in 1942 in Tianjin, he started out as an athlete but after an injury was transferred to work in the Chinese Traditional Painting Press in Tianjin where he began to paint and write: In 1974 he taught Chinese traditional painting at the Tianjin Workers' College of Decorative Art and continued to write in his spare time. In 1978 he became a professional writer and in 1981 was elected vice-chairman ofthe Tianjin branch ofthe Chinese Writers' Association and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Since 1976 he has published two novels, three novellas and two volumes ofshort stories. His novelette Ah! won an award in the 1977-1978 national novella competition and his short story A Carved Pipe won an award in the 1977 national short story competition.