Born in 1965, YEN studied philosophy and sociology at Soochow University in Taipei and then pursued graduate studies in filmmaking at the Northern Media School of Sheffield Hallam University. Since 1999, she focused on doumentary filmmaking. It took her 3 years to make 9/21 Earthquake Journal, a documentary on people's lives in the aftermath the earthquake which devastated central Taiwan in 1999. She also completed Let it Be with CHUANG Yi-tseng.