Zhang Zuyu (1941~2006), born in Kunming, Yunnan, was a primary school student. Influenced by the old artists of Kunming's "Chinese Music Society", he learned bamboo flute and often participated in local Chinese music performances. In 1959, he was transferred from a student of Yunnan Industrial School to a professional actor. In 1960, he went to Yunnan Arts Institute to study bamboo flute playing from Lin Yin and Chen Wentao. He was a solo performer of the Yunnan Song and Dance Troupe. He lives in a minority area that is good at singing and dancing, so he has the opportunity to go to the minority area to live deeply and learn from folk artists, such as Bawu of Hani, Hulusi of Dai, Tuliang of Jingpo, etc. He also composed Bau's solo "Beautiful Frontier", which expresses the picturesque style of Yunnan with a graceful and euphemistic melody. His playing has a good grasp of the Yunnan minority style. Due to an osteoma in his left leg in 1967, he was disabled for life and rarely performed on stage. In the face of adversity, he persevered, insisted on studying Bawu's creation and reform, and achieved some achievements. His representative works include "Yi People Sing Happy Songs", "Happy Bawu" and "Dawn of Jingpo Mountain". Member of the Chinese Musicians Association. Died 2006.12.24.

In the 1960s, he went to the frontier minority areas to learn the performance and production of national musical instruments such as Bawu, Hulusi and Tuliang from folk artists. In 1983, together with Tan Weiyu, a teacher of the Folk Music Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, they jointly produced the "14-key 24-Blue Wood Wind Reform Bawu". Won the third prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Culture. He has visited the former Soviet Union, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries successively.