Late writer Chiung Yao boasts $344M fortune

Late writer Chiung Yao. Photo from Chiung Yao super topic Weibo

The writer passed away on Wednesday at the age of 86. Her body was discovered at her home in Taipei.

According to China Entrepreneur magazine, Chiung Yao’s peak period spanned from the 1960s to the 1990s, during which her books and films influenced many generations. Her primary source of income came from royalties earned through her books, music, and films.

Her stories were first adapted into films in 1965. Two years later, the Shaw Brothers studio acquired the rights to three of her books to create three films.

Recognizing the potential of this development, Chiung Yao and her husband Ping Hsin Tao founded Juxing Company in the late 1970s, a company specializing in adapting her works into films. To date, nearly 100 film and television projects have been made based on her books.

For "My Fair Princess" alone, Chiung Yao earned more than 500 million yuan (US$68.7 million) in adaptation and broadcasting royalties. The total royalties from all her adapted films now exceed 1 billion yuan.

After her husband passed away in 2019, Chiung Yao inherited real estate worth 600 million yuan. Adding assets from a company she co-managed with her husband, her total fortune exceeded 2.5 billion yuan.

With her achievements in both literature and film, during the 1980s and 1990s, the writer was a major figure in the art world, giving rise to shining stars in the film industry. The term "Chiung Yao beauty" became popular in the 1980s to describe the actresses in her films, including Brigitte Lin, Joan Lin, Leanne Liu, Vivian Chen, Jiang Qinqin, Stephanie Hsiao, Vicky Zhao, and Ruby Lin.

Brigitte Lin, Ruby Lin, Alec Su, Leo Ku, Vivian Chen, and Fan Bingbing have all said that Chiung Yao changed their lives.

Born in 1938 as Chen Che, Chiung Yao became a renowned writer and screenwriter with a series of best-selling books including "Outside the Window," "One Side of the Water," "Princess Pearl," and "The Wild Goose on the Wing."

In March 2017, Chiung Yao publicly released a letter outlining her wishes for her family after her death. In the letter, she stated that if she were seriously ill, she wished to exercise her "right to die." She expressed a desire not to have any religious funeral rites. The writer instructed her children not to publish an obituary, hold a memorial service, set up an altar, burn paper offerings, hold death anniversaries, or perform Qingming rituals.