Feng Gong

Feng Gong was born Feng Mingguang (冯明光) in Tianjin, China, on December 6, 1957,^[1] the son of Feng Haigang (冯海岗; 1920–1993), a local government official, and Liu Yisu (刘益素; born 1921), a daughter of an eminent family. His great-grandfather is Feng Guozhang, an early Republic-era warlord and the founder of the Zhili Clique, who once served as the President of the Republic of China between 1917 and 1918. He has an elder sister Feng Xingyun (冯幸耘; born 1947) and two elder brothers Feng Xin (冯信) and Feng Chuanshu (冯传书).

Feng graduated from Central China Normal University with a master's degree in Chinese Literature. In 1973, he performed a famous xiangsheng named Zunshi ai tudi (尊师爱徒弟) in Tianjin. Then he started to learn the arts of xiangsheng from the xiangsheng master Ma Ji. He also worked in a textiles machine factory. Feng was considered more talented than many other students of Ma Ji, and eventually emerged as a new star, performing progressively to bigger venues. Niu Qun (牛群) and Liu Wei (刘伟) were his partners when performing xiangsheng.

Feng appeared in the first CCTV New Year's Gala in 1986; he has appeared at almost every Chunwan performance for the next thirty years, variably in skits and xiangsheng. Feng is usually one of the first acts of the show; it is said he appears earlier in the program so that he can drive home to Tianjin to spend midnight on new year with his mother.^[2]

In 1988, he won the championship at the competition of xiangsheng performances in Dalian held by China Central Television.

On December 24, 2017, Feng was elected as the vice chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang.^[3] He was re-elected as the vice chairman on December 6, 2022.^[4]

On October 12, 2018, Feng was elected as the new chairman of the China Literary and Art Volunteers' Association (中国文艺志愿者协会; CLAVA) by its 2nd National Congress.^[5]

Feng is the great-grandson of Feng Guozhang (1859-1919), once the president of the Republic of China during the chaotic Warlord era.^[6] His grandfather, Feng Jiayu (冯家遇; 1888–1953), was a businessman. Feng himself is a leadership figure in the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, one of the eight legally recognized political parties in China, as well as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He is often accosted by reporters during the annual Lianghui meetings in Beijing due to his celebrity status.

1983, Feng Gong married Ai Hui (艾慧) in Tianjin, the couple have a son, Feng Kaicheng (冯开诚), born in 1984.^[7]