Like father, like daughter? On Tuesday, Chinese playwright Wan Fang scooped a Cao Yu Drama Award, China's highest theater honor that was named after her father's pen name.

Wan Fang, 56, who was honored for "A Poison," shared the prize with seven other writers, including Yu Qingfeng, who wrote a Yue opera adaptation of the Yuan Dynasty play "Orphan of Zhao."

It was the first time Wan Fang held the statuette of his late father. She said her path to success was not always smooth.

"At first, my father didn't want me to follow his footsteps," Wan Fang said at the ceremony in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. "Despite his fame, my father thought creative writing was a painful procedure.

"But he would be proud of me today."

Wan Fang started her career as a television screenwriter, and her father's fame somehow deterred her from writing dramas. "I finally had the courage after turning 50," she said.

"A Poison," Wan Fang's theatrical debut, premiered in 2006 in Beijing followed by good audience turnout.

Wan's father Cao Yu, born Wan Jiabao, was hailed as China's most important playwright of the last century. He gained wide recognition by penning hits such as "Lei Yu" ("Thunderstorm"; 1933) and "Ri Chu" ("Sunrise"; 1936), and was called the founding father of Chinese modern drama.

Cao Yu died in 1996 at the age of 86.

The Cao Yu Drama Awards, former known as Cao Yu Drama Literature Awards, were renamed in 2005 and since then honored writers every two years.

(CRI September 10, 2008)