虫儿飞 (Chóngr Fēi): Lyrics, Pinyin & the Story Behind "Fly, Little Bug"

Quick answer: 虫儿飞 (Chóngr Fēi, "Fly, Little Bug") is a modern Mandarin song, not an old folk tune — it comes from the 2003 TV drama 还珠格格 III (My Fair Princess III) and went on to become one of the most beloved bedtime songs in Mandarin-speaking households, thanks to its gentle melody and starlit, insect-under-the-night-sky imagery.

The lyrics

Chinese	Pinyin	English
黑黑的天空低垂，	Hēihēi de tiānkōng dīchuí,	The pitch-black sky hangs low,
亮亮的繁星相随，	liàngliàng de fánxīng xiāngsuí,	Bright stars keep it company,
虫儿飞，虫儿飞，	Chóngr fēi, chóngr fēi,	Little bug, fly, little bug, fly,
你在思念谁？	nǐ zài sīniàn shéi?	Who are you longing for?

Where it comes from

虫儿飞 was written for the 2003 Taiwanese/mainland television drama 还珠格格 III (My Fair Princess III), part of Qiong Yao's hugely popular drama franchise. It appears in the show and later took on a life well beyond it through cover performances by various singers, which is largely how it became so widely known. Unlike the folk lullabies elsewhere in this series, this is a modern, composed song with a specific media origin — but its gentle, slightly melancholy melody and its imagery of a small insect flying beneath a star-filled sky have made it a genuine modern classic, one that many Chinese parents now sing at bedtime regardless of whether they've ever seen the drama it came from.

How to sing it with your baby

• Newborn–6 months: The melody is slow and legato, without sudden loud notes, which makes it well suited to humming during feeds or the last stretch of a wind-down routine — you don't need to sing every word to get the calming effect.
• 6–18 months: Use "虫儿飞，虫儿飞" (chóngr fēi, chóngr fēi) as a cue paired with a gentle motion — fluttering your fingers like wings — since babies at this age are starting to connect a repeated sound with a repeated gesture.
• 18 months+: If you're outside at dusk and spot a real insect or a star, point it out and sing the matching line — grounding the song's imagery in something your toddler can actually see helps the words start to mean something, not just sound nice.

Continue building your song list

This is one of the individual lullaby and nursery-rhyme posts on Twiglet Tales — see the full collection of Chinese lullabies and nursery rhymes for more songs at every stage, or continue with the Growth Roadmap for a staged plan beyond songs alone.