Professor Zheng Xiaoying, the first female conductor in China, is known for her enthusiastic, unrestrained and smooth style of conducting. Currently the art supervisor of Beijing's Ai Yue Nu Center of Music Arts, the chief conductor of the Ai Yue Nu Philharmonic Society and the managing director of the China Association of Musicians, Xiaoying is famous the world over for her talent and dedication.

Xiaoying graduated from the China Central Conservatory of Music. In 1960, she traveled to the Moscow Conservatory of Music in Russia where she studied conducting theory and opera and philharmonic music. She returned to China two years later, successfully conducting the Italian opera "Tosca" and "Ai Yi Gu Li," a popular Chinese opera. Since her return, she has been chosen to be the chief conductor for a number of national concert performances, conducting operas such as "Traviata," "Flower Protecting God" and "Madame Butterfly." In 1981, Xiaoying was named China's Excellent Conductor by the Ministry of Culture, and she was awarded the Honorary Medal of French Literature and Arts in 1985. She has won the title of China National Advanced Musicians four times and has traveled all over Asia, Europe and the United States to give concerts and lectures.

In 1989, Xiaoying, along with fellow musicians Situ Zhiwen and Zhu Li, established the Ai Yue Nu Philharmonic Society. An all female performance group, the Philharmonic Society aims to introduce the public to classical music, develop Chinese national music and stimulate international cultural exchange. Ai Yue Nu has featured both modern and classical Chinese and Western music in its more than 250 concerts. The group won high praise at the United Nation's Fourth International Conference on Women in 1995, where it performed for the delegates, who said, "[The Philharmonic Society] is the pride not only of the Chinese women but also of all the women in the world."

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