Feng-Pan Yao was born August 1932 in Anhui Province. Early employment consisted of reporting, editing and head writing duties in Taipei news publications. In 1956, he won an award for investigative journalism. In 1960, he began screenwriting. In 1968, he won a prize for his movie criticism. After that, he received commendation for being an up-and-coming writer in the younger generation and, in 1969, graduated to directing. From then until the early 80s, he almost exclusively shot ghost stories and made dozens of them, earning himself the nickname "King of Ghost Films" by the Taiwanese press. After the popularity of ghost films waned, Mr. Yao started his own magazine, a chain of fast food stores and invested in a theme park. He passed away in 2004.