On Tuesday, the official Sina Weibo account for TV drama Flowers In Fog posted an open letter by the show's Taiwanese scriptwriter, Chiung Yao, directed at the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, in which she claims that scriptwriter and director Yu Zheng's TV drama The Palace: the Lost Daughter has copied the leading characters and main story line from Chiung's 1993 book and TV series Plum Blossom Scar.

In the letter Chiung lists the similarities between The Palace: the Lost Daughter and Plum Blossom Scar as evidence, adding that she became very heart-broken and even sick when she found her hard work had been plagiarized.

She mentions that she had recently added new material to the original script of the Plum Blossom Scar TV show with plans to create a new show, but these plans were soon brought to a halt due to the similarities between The Palace and Plum Blossom Scar.

"I ask all my friends in the media to understand that I am now mentally and physically exhausted and wish for them to not interview me. I hope people with a sense of justice will refuse to watch Yu Zheng's TV drama," Chiung wrote.

Just last week, Yu had gotten into an online argument with actress Dai Jiaoqian because the latter had said in an interview that The Palace's story had been inspired by Plum Blossom Scar. Yu criticized Dai for speaking "nonsense," and later publicly expressed that "only an ignorant person would say that I had committed plagiary."   

From Taiwan, the 76-year-old Chiung began her writing career back in the early 1960s. Famous for her romantic love stories, she has influenced many other writers of modern Chinese literature. Almost all her books have been adapted into TV series or films.