cheng was born 9 december 1935 in nanjing, jiangsu, china. he graduated from the school of architecture of nanjing institute of technology (now part of southeast university). in 1984 cheng became director and chief architect of the hangzhou architectural design institute. he won the liang sicheng architecture prize in 2004 and was elected a member of chinese academy of engineering in 2005. his pieces were collected in "20th-century world architecture" by international union of architects.