Chien Yao (Chinese: å§Âè¬Â; born June 21, 1961, in Taiwan) is a Taiwanese lyricist and author, known for supporting and beginning the careers of many artists. Yao is known to write about female sentiments. He has supported the careers of many A-list singers. Yao had served in Dian Jiang Records and Sony Music Taiwan, and had been the GM of EMI Records Taiwan, Virgin Records Taiwan, and Music Nation Group Taiwan. Yao is currently retired from executive positions and serves as an exclusive writer for Warner Chappell Music, Hong Kong Limited Taiwan Branch.
Yao grew up in a veteran family from Tainan. From a very young age, his love for arts has developed and he was very active in participating in all kinds of arts contest. Although he never received any recognition then, the contests allowed him to reinforce his passion for arts and develop his own perspective. With Industrial Design as his major, Yao studied in Tainan Kunshan College (now Kunshan Technology University), he started his career being a car salesman in Honda. Yao suffered from health problems and had to quit his job. Yao decided that he should engage in something that he is passionate about. When the Taiwanese pop music industry was booming in the early 1980s, Yao quickly found himself a marketing job in the industry.
Initially, Yao worked at Haili Records as the Recording Administrative Assistant. He worked with Ling Jiang. Yao incorporated Murong Xi's poem âÂÂRegretless Youth ç¡æ¨çÂÂéÂÂæÂ¥âÂÂ, and the album was financially successful. After that album, Yao went to Dianjiang Records, a record label at the time, to manage Stella Chang's album. Nana Chiang's âÂÂJin Sheng Zui Tong De Ge ä»ÂçÂÂæÂÂçÂÂçÂÂæÂÂâ was his debut work.
He used to go to Japan very often, and on one occasion, after heard a Japanese Enka âÂÂYakushyaâÂÂ, wrote Taiwanese lyrics, dubbing that song. That was Yao's first attempt to write in Taiwanese. The song that would later on lead to Yao and Jody Chiang's collaboration.
Over the decade of Yao's career at Dianjiang, he helped various artists, including Nana Chiang, Sky Wu, Jody Chiang, Monique Lin, etc. His work âÂÂI'm Willing æÂÂé¡ÂæÂÂâ in 1994, written for Faye Wong, has reached and remained on the KTV charts since then. Eventually, Dianjiang was acquired by EMI, and Yao went to Sony Music to be the General Manager for Chinese pop music. Under his management, Yao assisted in the careers of artists such as Coco Lee, Harlem Yu, and Leehom Wang.
In 1998, Virgin Music invited Yao to be the General Manager, in charge of the Chinese music business under the whole Virgin Group. Yao assisted artists Elva Hsiao, Maggie Chiang, Angela Hou, Sandy Lam, Stanley Huang, Rene Liu, Ailin Dai during his employment.
Yao left Virgin Music in 2005 and served as the General Manager for Music Nation Ursa Major Limited, and the Vice President for Le Music, managing artists like Xiaoming Huang, Quan Yuan, and Coco Lee.
In the 1980s, Yao's âÂÂThe Dull Ice Flower é¯å°è±â was popular in the Chinese music industry. In 1989, a Taiwanese director Li-Kuo Yang produced the movie âÂÂThe Dull Ice FlowerâÂÂ. As the theme song, being too hard for the children actors to learn, Li-kuo Yang sought the assistance of Yao. Yao wrote a new song for the movie, which met success, winning "Best Original Film Song" from Golden Horse Awards in the same year.
After that, Yao continued musical productions and worked with singers such as Monique Lin, Stella Chang, Sky Wu, Jody Chiang, Coco Lee, Leehom Wang, Harlem Yu, Sandy Lam, Rene Liu, etc. His works include Jody Chiang's âÂÂLife of an Artist èÂÂçÂÂ人çÂÂâÂÂ, Stella Chang's âÂÂLa California å å·Âé½å ÂâÂÂ, Sky Wu's âÂÂSharing Ã¥ÂÂ享âÂÂ, Winnie Hsin's âÂÂScent å³éÂÂâÂÂ, Faye Wong's âÂÂI'm Willing æÂÂé¡ÂæÂÂâÂÂ, Harlem Yu's âÂÂJust for You åªæÂÂçº你âÂÂ, and Coco Lee's âÂÂDi Da DiâÂÂ, etc. Later in the years, Yao would produce songs Hsiao's âÂÂThe Most Familiar Stranger æÂÂçÂÂæÂÂçÂÂéÂÂçÂÂ人âÂÂ, Karen Mok's âÂÂLove æÂÂæ âÂÂ, Ailing Dai's âÂÂMr. Right å°ÂçÂÂ人âÂÂ, Tanya Chua's âÂÂJi Nian ç´Â念âÂÂ, âÂÂStranger éÂÂçÂÂ人âÂÂ, and Maggie Chiang's âÂÂHow I Envy You æÂÂå¤Â麼羨æ Âä½ âÂÂ.
In 2006, Yao was awarded with Best Original Film Song by Hong Kong Film Award with âÂÂPerhaps Love å¦ÂæÂÂæÂÂâÂÂ. He also served as the music director of âÂÂAmber çÂ¥çÂÂâÂÂ, a multimedia musical that was successful in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and âÂÂMo ShanéÂÂå±±âÂÂ, a children's theater production. He also worked with Subaru China on its annual theme song âÂÂWo Xing Wo Lu æÂÂè¡ÂæÂÂè·¯â in 2011. àInvited by Director Han Xiao in 2016, Yao produced the music for the documentary âÂÂMasters in the Forbidden CityâÂÂ. He collaborated with many young musicians and used softer melodies to express the craftsmen's attitude towards life.
Other than these contributions on music, Yao also engaged himself in film productions. In 2012, Yao produced âÂÂMelody 蠳趾ä¸ÂçÂÂæÂÂå ÂâÂÂ, which is an animated movie that incorporated his scriptwriting, novel story, and music. The story used love letters to tell the story of a long-distance relationship between Taipei and Beijing. In 2017, Yao was inspired by his own experiences in art collection, and invited Director Hao-Hsuan Hsu to film and produce the movie âÂÂAh-ArtâÂÂ. This movie was later selected by Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival as the movie representative of Taiwan.
Yao has been engaged in fashion and exhibitions. In 2007, he organized the "Southeast Asian Art Exhibition". Other than this particular exhibition, Yao's involvement in the promotion and organization of artistic events has continued over the years.
In 2013, Yao published "Sense It", expressing his personal perspective on fashion, taste, and lifestyle. In 2014, Yao compiled columns he wrote for Crown Culture Corp. and published âÂÂMei Li De Xiang Yu ç¾ÂéºÂçÂÂç¸éÂÂâÂÂ. Other than publishing literature, Yao also participated as the panel judge for "Chinese Million Star". He was one of the eight pallbearers for Coco Lee's funeral, 31 July 2023. Currently, Yao is informally retired, but is still occasionally involved in the music industry, arts, and literature
Yao has been influenced by the writings of Tien-wen Chu and Eileen Chang when he was reading their novels at a young age. He has been influenced by them, with his writing style following a pattern of describing the environment first, followed by actions, then writing out the people's state of mind.
Yao's lyrics are mostly about revelation and liberation from emotions after ending a relationship. In his later career, Yao has the habit of reading his lyrics out loud, for the purpose of detecting phony terms and revising the words to be more colloquial.
In Yao's work, observations of female emotions are often seen. He personally believes that his frequent association with female artists is just a coincidence, as the artists in the record label at the time were all women (Jody Chiang, Nana Chiang, Monique Lin, Shu-chin Tseng, etc.)
Yao's lyrics often include themes of women's empathy and sentiments. Singers like Rene Liu, Elva Hsiao, Coco Lee, Winnie Hsin, and Tanya Chua often respect him and see him as their teacher and brother.
When being asked to compare himself with Jonathan Lee, another songwriter who's highly acclaimed for his understanding of women, Yao thinks that Lee writes about women from a male perspective, whereas he himself writes from a female perspective.
Other than music, Yao is also active in culture and arts in general. In his house in Taipei, there is a wall in the living room that's dedicated to what he claims to be the collection of "Greatest Asian oil paintings in the 20th century". His house in Beijing is also full of artworks that he gathered from around the globe. The insights and perspectives he's provided in his written articles have been cited by many art history scholars and students from Central Academy of Fine Arts and National Tsing Hua University.
Other than written critics on arts, Yao also published several literary works like prose writing and novels. In 2010, he compiled his published columns into the novel âÂÂWo Yuan Yi æÂÂé¡ÂæÂÂâÂÂ, which is a love story about the letter correspondences between Beijing and Taichung. In 2012, he published a fictional romantic novel âÂÂMelody 蠳趾ä¸ÂçÂÂæÂÂå ÂâÂÂ, along with its animated movie. In 2013, his work âÂÂSense ItÃ¥ÂÂå³â was published In 2018, his newest publication âÂÂAs Song, As Lifeâ was published by UNITAS Publishing Co. Over the years, Yao has published six books in total. He also has numerous appearances online, such as on shixiang.xin to discuss about Eileen Chang's work, and also on âÂÂGe Ci Shi Guang æÂÂè©ÂæÂÂå ÂâÂÂ, the page he built on Douban.com to share his lyrical writings.
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