As the first Chinese woman conductor, professor Zheng Xiaoying has been the first conductor in China Opera, dean of conduct department in central conservatory of music and chief inspector of art for Woman Philharmonic Orchestra. Now she is engaged as the general director and chief conductor of Xia Men Philharmonic Orchestra, the first Symphony Orchestra supported by government and run under responsibility system. She is also the executive council member of Musician Association of China. In 1981, she won the first prize of conductor in the art societies directly under Ministry of Art, the honorary decoration of Literary and Art of France in 1985 and the national devotion award of the old. The International Biography Center of Cambridge and many other international blue books have embodied her biography.

Passing the entrance exam of Beijing Xiehe Institution of Medical Science; Zheng Xiaoying studied in both departments of Biology and Music in Jinling Female University. In 1948 she went to the liberated area and worked in the League of Art and studied composing in Central Conservatory of Music in 1952. In 1955 she started to learn choral conduct and pursued her studies in Soviet Union, the National Thsaikovsky Conservatory of Music for Opera and choral conduct. In 1962 she conducted the Italian Opera "Tosca" in the Moscow Opera which was a great success. Her conduct was passionate but precise, full of artistic inspiring power and recognized as one of the best conductors in China.

Since 1978, she has conducted many important national performances, including "The Escort God", "The One Hundredth Bride", "The Fallen Woman", "Crane in Sunset", "Carmen", "Las bodas de Figaro", "Madam Butterfly", "Il Barbriere Disiviglia", etc. She has cooperated with National Orchestra, Shanghai philharmonic Orchestra, China Radio Broadcasting Orchestra, National Opera and other orchestras. Some of the dramas under her conduct have been recorded as discs and tapes, issued domestically and abroad, including "The One Hundredth Bride", "Song of Plain", "Carmen", "Aigoly" and other famous European opera, as well as the Paganini first prize winning violin concerto "Butterfly Lovers" and some other Chinese drama and symphony works.

Zheng Xiaoying is also one of the most experienced professors of conduct in China. Likewise, many of her students have been the top winner in the conductor contest in the U.S., France, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Portugal and other countries. Some have even become excellent conductors in China and the world. Additionally,, she is an earnest social activist for music. She has popularized musical knowledge to the public for nearly one thousand times with the direct audiences amount to more than two hundred thousand. From 1980, Zheng Xiaoying has went to Japan, America, Italy, Finland, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Ireland and Thailand, holing philharmonic concerts, attending International Art Festivals, conducting operas and giving lectures. She is the first as well as the most frequently invited Chinese Conductor for famous international dramas. She has been invited six times to Finland and Switzerland to conduct "Madam Butterfly", "Carmen", and "La Boheme". She has had over 60 performances which all received high comments from the public.