Trivia

On 15 April 2014, Chiung Yao accused Chinese screenwriter and producer Yu Zheng of blatant plagiarism, seeking immediate suspension of the broadcast of his TV series Palace 3: The Lost Daughter, which she alleged to have plagiarized from her 1992 novel Plum Blossom Scar . Yu denied the claim. On April 28, Chiung Yao filed a plagiarism lawsuit against Yu. On December 12, 109 Chinese screenwriters published a joint statement supporting Chiung Yao. A day later, an additional 30 Chinese screenwriters made their support of Chiung Yao known. On 25 December, the court ruled in Chiung Yao's favor, ordering four companies to stop distributing and broadcasting The Palace: The Lost Daughter, also demanding Yu Zheng to publicly apologize and pay Chiung Yao RMB 5 million (around $800,000) in compensation. China Radio International called it a "landmark ruling".

Her father, Chen Zhiping, was a professor of Chinese literature at National Taiwan Normal University.

In 1979, Chiung Yao married her publisher Ping Hsin-tao, who had had three children with his first wife Lin Wan-zhen. In 2018, Lin published a memoir in which she accused Chiung Yao of breaking up her marriage.

Chiung Yao's novels were first serialized in the Crown Magazine owned by Ping Hsin-tao and then published as monographs by Crown Publishing, also owned by Ping, who later became her second husband. The couple adapted many of her novels into television series and films, often serving as producers or screenwriters themselves.

In 1998, " My Fair Princess " became very famous in East Asia. It not only won the ratings championship in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, but was also very popular in Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia .

Nicknamed Fenghuang, she published her first novel, Poor Xiaoqing, at the age of nine.

Her novels have been praised for the prose, the poetry which are part of her earlier works, and the literary allusions of their titles. They are often described as "morbid", as some of them feature socially-questionable romantic relationships (e.g. between teacher and student).

The complete set of 65 volumes of " Qiong Yao Classic Collection " was handed over to Chengbang Culture and Chunguang for publication in early 2018, and the Century Collection Book Box Edition was released one after another, with a total of Volumes 1 to 5.

Her novels have been adapted into more than 100 films and TV dramas.

Her romance novels were very well received in Taiwan, and by the 1990s she was also one of the best-selling authors on mainland China.

In 1949, her family moved to Taiwan, where Chen attended the Affiliated Experimental Elementary School of University of Taipei and Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School.

Chiung Yao was the pen name of Chen Che, a Taiwanese writer and producer who was often regarded as the most popular romance novelist in the Chinese-speaking world.

Her younger sister, Chen Jinchun, and her brother-in-law, Chen Zhuangfei, were scientists at NASA and co-founders of the technology consulting firm General Sciences Corp. They are considered to be among the pioneers of Chinese entrepreneurship in the United States .

In 1971 and 1975, the films "Deep Courtyard" and "Girlfriend", adapted from Qiong Yao's novels, won the 9th and 12th Taiwan Golden Horse Awards for Best Feature Film respectively.

Her romance novels and their film adaptions have been criticized for their melodramatic plot lines and long-winded dialogues.

When she was 18, Chiung Yao fell in love with her high school Chinese teacher. This experience became the basis of her debut novel Outside the Window, which became one of her most popular works and launched her career as a writer.

On 4 December 2024, Chiung Yao was discovered dead with a suicide note at her residence in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Local police confirmed that there was no external intervention in her death. In her suicide note, she described her passing as "trippingly", expressed a desire to avoid the suffering of illness, and wrote, "I have truly lived, never wasted my life.".

After failing the university entrance examination three times, she married writer Ma Senqing and became a housewife.

Chiung Yao's readership and viewership are predominantly female, owing to her emphasis on the feelings of young women.

"My Cousin Wanjun" and " A Dumb Girl's Love ", produced by the Central Motion Picture Corporation in 1964 , were the first of Chiung Yao's works adapted into films and were released in 1965.

When she was 14 she published an article, "Fantasy", under the pen name Lu Gui.

On December 21, 2015, she officially joined the Chinese Society of Film Literature, becoming the society's only Taiwanese member.

On March 12, 2017, she suddenly published a letter to her son and daughter-in-law, revealing that she had recently read an article titled "Appointment for Your Own Beautiful Farewell" and was inspired to think about her own affairs after death. In this open letter, she also expressed her support for euthanasia legislation.

At the age of 16, she published an article, Shadow of the Cloud, under the pen name Xinru.

Chen Che and her twin younger brother were born during the Second Sino-Japanese War in Chengdu, Sichuan, to parents who had fled Beijing which had fallen to Japanese troops in 1937.