The small muffled flute is a national musical instrument of the Yi people of Chuxiong. It is made of bamboo tube. The small muffled flute is about three inches long and as thick as a pinky finger. There are four sound holes, three in the front and one in the back. When playing music, the scale and volume are controlled by the airflow in the mouth, and the pitch and timbre are changed by releasing the different sound holes and the cover of the base palm.

The Yi people especially like to play the muffled flute in March in the spring, so that the spring sowing production can be started in the joy of music. At that time, a hundred flowers bloom in the mountains and forests, and the flute is flying in the fields.

The muffled flute is often combined with musical instruments such as bamboo flute, sanxian and wood leaves, and is often accompanied by singing. When young men and women of the Yi nationality fall in love and "play songs", Xiao Miandi is the inseparable "matchmaker". It's played by men, and it's what guys use to date their sweethearts.

In love life, young men use the flute to pour out their inner secrets to their lovers and express their pure love. Many happy marriages are concluded with the flute. Folk artists often describe the meaning of the words they want to express with a small muffled flute, and dissolve their emotions into the music they play. Therefore, in many occasions that are inconvenient to express in words, the small muffled flute has become the spokesperson of the Yi family.

He often plays improvisationally, and traditional solo pieces include "Working Tunes", "Crossing the Mountain Tunes", "Asu Ze", "Shunning Tunes", "Sand Street Tunes", "Ma Cherry Blossoms" and so on.

In the early 1980s, the Song and Dance Troupe of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province began to excavate and study the small muffled flute, and composed the muffled solo pieces "Yi Jiale" and "Spring in Wumeng". In September 1980, in the National Ethnic Minority Art Festival, Xiaomendi joined the Yi small band, played the instrumental ensemble "On the Road to Picking Up the Family", and served as the lead player in it, giving full play to its cheerful and beautiful folk songs characteristics, adding more The warm atmosphere of folk festivity has received good artistic effects and won praise from the music industry. As a colorful musical instrument, it has also been used for many times in ethnic bands and mixed Chinese and Western bands, as well as in bands that accompany chorus and lead singers, showing its distinctive features and artistic charm from different angles.