Chiung Yao: what the novelist taught China about love and death

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• 00:00

  The Economist.

• 00:17

  On a quiet afternoon, inside her Taipei home last December,

• 00:21

  Qiong Yao, perhaps the most celebrated romance writer in the Chinese-speaking world, took her own life.

• 00:29

  She has left behind a huge body of work—novels, films, and TV series—

• 00:35

  often featuring stories of love

• 00:37

  that triumphed despite differences of wealth or class, parental disapproval, etiquette, or stifling tradition.

• 00:45

  Her decision to take her own life at the age of 86 also sent ripples through a society that still finds death a taboo subject.

• 00:56

  Suicide is frowned upon, and the elderly usually feel an obligation to live on for their family, however unwell.

• 01:05

  I'm Jiehao Chen, The Economist’s China researcher and Drum Tower producer.

• 01:10

  Alice is on the road this week, so I’ll be your host.

• 01:13

  I’m joined by Ann Roe, The Economist’s Obituaries editor.

• 01:18

  And today we're asking: Who was Qiong Yao?

• 01:22

  And how has she shaped ideas of love and death in contemporary China?

• 01:27

  This is Drum Tower, from The Economist.

• 01:34

  Ann,

• 01:37

  welcome to Drum Tower.

• 01:38

  Thanks so much, Jiehao.

• 01:39

  It's great to be with you.

• 01:40

  I can't believe we waited this long to have you on,

• 01:43

  and thank you for giving us a legitimate excuse to break away from all the tariffs and China-US relations.

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