Across literature, film and television, she is the most successful female "writer businessman" in history. Text | "Chinese Entrepreneur" reporter Tao Tao editor | Zhang Hao photo source | Visual China writer Qiong Yao was found dead at home at around 1:00 pm on December 4. She wa

Spanning literature, film and television, she is the most successful female "writer businessman" in history.

文｜Reporter of "Chinese Entrepreneur" Tao Tao

editor | Zhang Hao

Picture source | Visual China

Writer Qiong Yao was found dead at home at about 1 pm on December 4. She was 86 years old.

"I am a 'spark', and I have tried my best to burn. Now, before the flame is extinguished, I choose this way to go home gracefully. What I want to say is all recorded in my video of "When Snowflakes Fall" . I hope my friends can watch the video a few more times to understand everything I want to express." Half an hour before leaving this world, Qiong Yao mentioned this in the last 2 minutes and 06 seconds of the video left on the social media platform. .

In the video, she is dressed in red. The background of the video flashes across the snowflakes and huge waves mentioned in her recitation. Her life's work finally ends with blooming fireworks, and she expresses that she will "fly to the stars where you can dance." .

The Qing Dynasty writer Shen Fu mentioned in "Six Chapters of a Floating Life": "A deep love will not last long, but a long life will be humiliating." "The bedridden old man", so he chose to leave with dignity. But considering that this was just an individual choice, she did not forget to tell everyone: "Be healthy, happy, and live a carefree life!"

Many netizens lamented that Qiong Yao "left behind her last tenderness" when she left. Qiong Yao ended her life in the most "Qiong Yao" way.

She also left behind huge assets. According to media reports, outsiders believe that after her husband Ping Xintao died of illness in 2019, Qiong Yao received real estate worth 600 million yuan and Crown Pictures, a subsidiary of Crown Culture. It is conservatively estimated that her net worth exceeds 2.5 billion yuan.

Billions of net worth

Qiong Yao's original name is Chen Zhe, and her pen name is taken from "The Book of Songs Wei Feng": "Give me a peach, and give me Qiong Yao in return." She was born on April 20, 1938 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and her ancestral home is Hunan Province. Zhajiang Town, Hengyang County, his father Chen Zhiping is a university professor and his mother Yuan Xingshu.

comes from a literary family. Qiong Yao is a distant relative of the writer Jin Yong and the niece of the poet Xu Zhimo.

Looking back on the past half century, Qiong Yao is the all-powerful "godmother of romance" who has influenced generations of people. Including short stories, essays, novels, etc., Qiong Yao created about 100 works in her life. Her representative works include "Returning the Princess", "Misty Rain", "A Dream Behind the Curtain", "Deep in the Courtyard" and "A few Red Sunsets" The peak period of creation was from the 1960s to the 1990s, etc.

Whether they are born in the 70s, 80s or 90s, when they were students, many young people would stuff a few Qiong Yao’s books in their desks and peek at them when the teacher wasn’t paying attention.

Qiong Yao’s works have shaped the romantic outlook of several generations and created dreams in the virtual world for young people who have never been in love. The huge love dream she created naturally also created huge commercial value:

In the 1990s, Huacheng Publishing House acquired the mainland copyright of "The Complete Works of Qiong Yao", and the royalties have reached more than 3 million yuan. According to "Phoenix Weekly", if the total number of pirated copies is included, Qiong Yao's total income from works published in mainland China should reach 8 million yuan.

Her more income comes from various film, television and audio-visual publishing adaptation copyrights. As many as 80 of Qiong Yao’s literary works were adapted into film and television dramas.

As early as 1965, when Qiong Yao was 27 years old, her novels had begun to be adapted into film and television works. In 1967, Shaw Brothers Film Company remade three more of Qiong Yao's films.She found that this road was profitable, so in the late 1970s, she established a joint venture with Superstar Pictures Company with Ping Xintao, Sheng Zhuru and others to specialize in making movies adapted from her own works.

Before 2007, the revenue from the video copyright and radio and television broadcast rights of Qiong Yao dramas exceeded 200 million yuan in the mainland market alone.

The value created by TV series is even more immeasurable - at the peak of the popularity of Qiong Yao dramas, the copyright fee for the three "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" alone was more than 100 million yuan. If overseas copyright revenue is added in, the income brought to Qiong Yao from the IP of "Huanzhugege" alone exceeds 500 million yuan. In addition to "Huan Zhuge Ge", there are many other Qiong Yao dramas that are popular in the Chinese-speaking world. The copyright revenue from all her TV dramas is estimated to exceed 1 billion yuan.

In addition, Crown Culture Group, run by Qiong Yao and her husband, has a cumulative revenue of more than 2.2 billion yuan. This information has not been confirmed by the company. As the core writer of this company, Qiong Yao has contributed huge wealth to it.

"Star Making Factory"

At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the "Huan Zhu Princess" series came out. Xiao Yanzi, Ziwei, Fifth Prince, Erkang... the characters written by Qiong Yao vividly performed the world of mortals in the TV series. The drama of companionship.

The influence of this TV series can be said to be overwhelming: at that time, three generations of a family began to watch the show after dinner. Even if the children were asked to go to bed early or do their homework quickly, they were still attracted by the exciting plot and could not move. In the stationery stores in the streets and alleys, there were not many cultural and creative products at that time, but stickers with the protagonists of "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" could be seen everywhere. Posters of Ruby Lin , Su Youpeng , etc. have become popular in literary and audiovisual product stores.

After the first part of "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" was introduced to the mainland, its highest ratings exceeded 62.8%, and won the 17th China TV Golden Eagle Award for Best TV Series. Not only in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the first and second parts of this drama are also famous throughout East Asia.

Another label she puts on the film and television industry is "Girl Joan".

Movie stars known as the first generation of "Jones" include Brigitte Lin , Lin Fengjiao , and of course there are male protagonists, such as Deng Guangrong , Qin Han, etc. In August 1973, Lin Qingxia's debut film "Outside the Window" starring Lin Qingxia was released and became popular all over the country.

In the 1980s, Qiong Yao shifted from the film industry to the television industry, and the second generation of "Qiong Girls" came into being: Liu Xuehua , Xiao Qiang , and Chen Derong all appeared in the industry at this time. The well-known actors in the same period also include Lin Ruiyang, Ma Jingtao, etc.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Qiong Yao dramas swept through the film and television industry like a tornado, pushing the "Qiong Yao fever" to its peak: with the broadcast of "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" and "Love in the Rain", the protagonist once again faced the challenges of society. All eyes are on you.

Take Su Youpeng among them as an example. When filming the first part of "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", his remuneration for one episode was 2,000 yuan. The entire drama has about 20 episodes, and the total income is about 40,000 yuan. By 2004, when he was filming "The Tigers of the Yang Family", his salary per episode reached US$10,000, which shows how strong the star-making ability of Qiong Yao dramas is.

After filming "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", Su Youpeng's number of advertising endorsements also tripled. In 2004, he endorsed a sneaker brand for the third consecutive year, with a yearly remuneration of HK$2.6 million.

Since entering the new century, the remake of dramas such as "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" has given Qin Lan, Li Sheng, and Hai Lu the title of "a new generation of Joan girls". To this day, most of the Joan girls in the past half century still occupy the top positions in the country and even the entire Chinese film and television industry after becoming famous.

Still "fermenting"

Today, when the views on love and marriage have changed, readers and audiences have become somewhat tired of "Qiong Yao-style" works - the romantic "pink bubbles" are unrealistic, and even the plot lacks logic.

However, every winter and summer vacation, some TV stations will still intensively broadcast Qiong Yao dramas, and the ratings are still strong. For example, Hunan Satellite TV rebroadcast "Huan Zhuge Ge" during the 2018 winter vacation. After the broadcast, the ratings jumped to the highest during the day. The first place in provincial satellite TV during the time period.

With the rise of the mobile Internet, whether it is video accounts, Douyin, or Bilibili, various second-generation works related to Qiong Yao dramas are still flowing continuously. Many people will add a satisfactory ending to the "difficult to reconcile" drama. The cultural and commercial value of Qiong Yao's works are still fermenting.

Because for many readers and viewers of Qiong Yao who have grown up or are nearly middle-aged, revisiting old dramas is not just about reminiscing about the plot, it also means revisiting a drama that is mixed with nostalgia, youthfulness, and complexity. Emotional youth.

Contemporary people who are wandering in the quagmire of reality are still willing to occasionally return to the world built by Qiong Yao and have another dream.

This person has passed away, but the classic will last forever.