Chiung Yao
After a successful writing career which saw many of her works adapted into films and television series, Taiwanese romance novelist Chiung Yao and her husband Ping Hsin-tao established Yi Ren Communications Co. (怡人傳播公司) in 1985 to produce television dramas. (The company later transferred to Chiung Yao's son Chen Chung-wei and daughter-in-law Ho Hsiu-chiung.) In 1987, the Republic of China government on Taiwan began to allow visits to People's Republic of China for the first time since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. China did not allow visits outside China until 1990, and only then to a few select countries. In her first trip in 1988, Chiung Yao became friends with Ouyang Changlin, then a reporter working for Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS), who encouraged her to start producing dramas in China due to more diverse landscape and cheaper labor cost.