Feng Jicai

Feng Jicai (simplified Chinese: 冯骥才; traditional Chinese: 馮驥才; pinyin: Féng Jìcái) is an author who focuses most of his works on writing stories which explain historical events that have occurred in his hometown of Tianjin, China. He also writes stories about the lives of several intelligent men. Feng Jicai is also an artist who specializes in calligraphy and painting.

Feng was born in 1942 in Tianjin, during World War II. After living in Tianjin until about 1982, he began serving as an executive chairman for a few literature associations. These association include, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and chairman of the Tianjin Writers Association.

Feng had a special appreciation and devotion to preserving the culture of Tianjin. He too found an interest in Tianjin folk art. During the same time that Jicai was working on most of his literature compositions, he dedicated numerous hours to preserving all types of folk art as well. He developed a book which was composed of the many unique pieces of Tianjin folk art.

Feng's interest in preserving Tianjin culture was expressed by restoring and protecting the beautiful architecture of the Tianjin culture. He was so interested and devoted to this hobby that he funded most of the architectural preservations directly from his own income. In 2003 a nationwide heritage rescue program was implemented all due to Feng's proposition. Because of Feng’s love and passion for this program, he even sold some of his own pieces of artwork to help fund it. Feng's greatest wish is to preserve his culture’s heritage.

The failure of this effort is described in the book Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Myer. As soon as Feng travelled the Chinese officials destroyed almost all of what he worked to preserve.

In addition to Feng’s composition of novels and short stories, he used his talent to write several newspaper articles explaining and urging citizens of Tianjin to take action and responsibility in preserving their community.

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