Zang Hong performs hawking songs when selling candied hawthorns on a Beijing street. Da Wei / for China Daily

Celebrated Beijing folk artist Zang Hong passed away after struggling with prostate cancer at the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Sunday afternoon at age 80.

Zang began working at the Beijing Railway Bureau in 1952 and soon after entered the bureau's art troupe because he had displayed talent singing and performing cross-talk.

He later became cross-talk master Wang Changyou's apprentice.

Zang became nationally acclaimed for playing a traditional Beijing hawker in the 1981 film Sadness. He performed hawker songs in about 130 movies and TV series, and became known as the "the King of Hawking".

Traditional Beijing hawking songs, originally sung by vendors in hutong, are usually canzonets with certain rhythms and reflect the city's history and local culture.

The municipal government put the genre on the Beijing Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2007.

Zang could sing more than 170 hawking song varieties.

Netizens have been expressing condolences on micro blogs.

"When Zang passed away, Beijing's hutong went silent," TV editor Guo Jinhua writes.

Cross-talk performer Xu Deliang writes: "I can't agree more. But Zang's recordings of hawking songs are of an art form we younger people haven't had a chance to hear in the hutong, because it vanished in the 1980s. Nobody brought hawking songs to such prominence as Zang and I don't expect anyone will again."

Zang was born to a Manchu family as the eighth generation of artisans to arrange weddings and funerals for a living. Growing up with the rituals meant Zang knew Beijing folklore well.

He later hosted numerous ceremonies, weddings and festival celebrations, where he performed hawking songs.

"He knew many traditions that can't be found in reference books," 57-year-old Tang Yongqing, Zang's oldest apprentice, says.

"He was probably the nation's oldest ceremony host who still worked, and he always remained emotional during performances. My master selflessly taught us all he knew rather than keep trade secrets for himself."

Tang says Zang was also conscientious. "He always arrived at the site two hours before the ceremony because he thought the guests would be nervous while waiting for their hosts," Tang recalls.

Zang hosted his last ceremony in May 2011, three months before his health began to deteriorate.

He is survived by his two sons, two grandsons and his wife. A memorial service will be held at 9 am on Feb 25 at Beijing's Daxing Funeral Parlor.