A native of Chongqing, Sichuan, A Kejian was born in 1933. In 1945 he was admitted to the children’s class of the State School of Music in Sichuan. Later he successively studied the violin under Ma Sicong and Tan Shuzhen in the China Central Conservatory of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. From 1959 he served as a violinist in the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and is now in-charge of the orchestra’s Chinese Symphonic Creation Data Centre and a member of the China Musicians Association. He has composed and arranged a number of instrumental pieces, the best known of which are his violin concerto The Honghu Lake, Yi Melody for flute and orchestra, the ensemble Happy Luosuo, and the orchestral Song of Huayi, Golden Peacock, Xianzi Dance and Nocturne.