If you watched the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, you may remember that one of the five Olympic mascots was a swallow-shaped kite named Ni Ni. This particular shape was chosen for the mascot because the kites are one of the most popular type of kites flown in Beijing.

One particular type of swallow-shaped kites are called Cao kites, named after Cao Xueqin (1715-63), the author behind the famous romance novel Dream of the Red Chamber.

Cao once wrote an eight-volume book illustrating different professions that ordinary people could make a living with, one section in particular showed how to make swallow-shaped kites. Although the book was apparently never published, it turned up again during the 1940's in the hands of a Japanese businessman. At the time, kite maker Kong Xiangze managed to copy the book and began making kites based on Cao's designs, thus establishing the Cao school of kite making.

Eighty-nine-year-old Fei Baoling, who has been making kites for more than six decades, is an inheritor of this Cao school.

Hobby to career

During his childhood, Fei loved to fly kites. During the 1950s, however, there were few people selling kites in Beijing due to the turmoil brought about by the Chinese civil war (1946-49). Unable to enjoy his favorite hobby, the then 20-something Fei decided to learn how to make kites on his own.

It was during his time as an amateur kite maker that Fei met Kong Xiangze. Impressed with the young man's talent at kite making, the experienced kite maker decided to take Fei under his wing.

Kong began to share with Fei his skills in creating Cao kites. For the next 30 years, the two would work together making Cao kites. They also continued researching the chapter on kites that Cao had written. This would lead to them publishing two modern analyses on Cao-style kites.