Born in Tianjin in 1942 to a family originally from Ningbo, Zhejiang province, Feng rose to prominence as a pioneer of the Scar Literature movement that emerged after the Cultural Revolution.

[1][2][3] He has published close to one hundred literary works that span a number of different topics, styles and genres.

His major works include Ah!, The Carved Pipe, The Tall Woman and Her Short Husband, The Miraculous Pigtail, Three Inch Golden Lotus, Zebra Finches, Ten Years of Madness: Oral Histories of China's Cultural Revolution, and Extraordinary People in Our Ordinary World.

He is also dean, professor and PhD supervisor at the Feng Jicai Institute of Literature and Art, Tianjin University, vice chair of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Evaluation Group, and director of the China Traditional Village Protection Expert Committee.

[1] In 2013, Feng won the 22nd Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award.