Chuang Shu-Chen ran away from home at twenty to join a Taiwanese opera troupe. However, she left after just half a year to pursue a new interest in writing fiction. Her long-form novel The Silent Thrush, inspired by her lived opera troupe experience, won the 1990 Independence Evening Post Million Dollar Award for Literature. More recently, in addition to new works of realist literature, Chuang Shu-Chen has published essays on food and foodie culture.