Li Yuan (Chinese: 李遠; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Oán; born 31 October 1951), also known by his pen name Hsiao Yeh (Chinese: 小野; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sió-iá), is a Taiwanese novelist, screenwriter and politician who is the minister of Culture since 2024.
Early life and education
Li's family is of Hakka descent and originates from Wuping County, moving to Taiwan in 1949. Li Yuan was born in Monga, Taipei, on 31 October 1951.[1] His father was a statistician and his mother taught writing at National Taiwan Normal University, later becoming a journalist. Li's father gave his eldest son the pen name Hsiao Yeh, and both parents encouraged him to write. Li read classics such as War and Peace and The Old Man and the Sea at the age of 11, at the behest of his father and was forced to write reports on them afterward, though Li preferred to draw cartoons and perform plays instead.[2]
Hsiao Yeh published his first book in 1974, and was hired by the Central Motion Picture Corporation in 1981. In 1986, Hsiao Yeh won his first Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay. The next year, he and Edward Yang shared the 1987 Asia-Pacific Film Festival Award for best screenplay after co-writing Terrorizers.[1] Hsiao Yeh stated in 2001 that, while he was at CMPC, many of his superiors came from military backgrounds and films were often made according to Kuomintang-led governmental directives.[3] There, Hsiao Yeh also met Wu Nien-jen, with whom he founded May Productions in 1989. Shortly after starting May Productions, Hsiao Yeh won the 1990 Golden Horse Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Later that decade, he became a television writer and presenter. Hsiao Yeh worked for Taiwan Television from 2001 to 2004 and served as general manager of Chinese Television System from 2006 to 2008.[1] He contributed to the book Touring Taiwan, released in 2008.[4] Hsiao Yeh was the artistic director of the musical "Hey! Atiku", which was based on one of his stories and debuted in 2010, the first such Hakka production geared toward children.[5]
