A native of the Achang ethnicity, one of the 56 ethnic groups in the country, Cao is now a writer focusing on the folklore of his 30,000 tribes people.

Born into a farmer's family in 1956 in Mangzhan Village of Dehong Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan Province, Cao is one of six children.

Life was hard; he used to graze the cattle when he was young. He was illiterate, speaking Achang dialect only when he reached the school year.

He still remembers the day when a man of the Han people visited his home, asking whether his ?papa? was at home.

"We ate it," Cao replied, because ?papa" has the same pronunciation of "corn cake" in local dialect.

At the age of 10, Cao was able to go to school after a teacher, who knew the local dialect, set up a primary school in the village.

The year 1972 was a turning point for Cao as he left for further studies at Dehong Normal College, becoming the first "scholar" in the village. This was the time that Cao made up his mind -- to become a village teacher. He was then just 16 years old.

"I admired my first teacher, I wanted to do what he had done for me," Cao recalled.

After graduating in 1975, he settled down in Dashan Village, an isolated place hidden in the mountains of Pingshan Township. "I would like more children to know how to read and write," Cao said.

During his five years in the school, he wrote poems recording what he had experienced in the village. Whenever he finished his verses he would read them aloud to friends and students.

Then came the second turning point in his life with the publication of one of his poems in a local newspaper.

Cao has become adept at literature ever since. He has published a series of poems, stories and essays featuring the cultural heritage of the Achang people. Cao has concentrated on collecting the folk tales of his ethnic group.

As one of the deputies of Yunnan Province attending the 10th National People's Congress, Cao, deputy chairman of the Dehong Prefecture Federation of Literature and Art Circles, is working on a proposal to establish an eco-museum to preserve the traditional way of life of the Achang people.

(China Daily March 5, 2003)