In the past, Chinese men used to marry several wives, while family disputes happened all the time and often ended up in tragedy. However, family disputes rarely took place in Ming Hwa Yuan. Moreover, it is unimaginable that each wife of Mr. Chen Ming-ji was introduced by the former one. One by one, Mr. Chen Ming-ji married six wives in total. One of the reasons for his bigamous marriage was due to the contemporary biased social value at that time. Entertainers were somehow discriminated and treated as “ineligible” to marry, while female actors in Taiwanese Opera troupes yearned for a sense of safety and adequate clothing and food supply. Therefore, it was quite common and reasonable for females in the same Taiwanese Opera troupe to marry the same man. That’s why in the past, sometimes in Taiwanese Opera troupes, we can see that most of the female actors were all married to the chief of that troupe. In this way, the whole troupe as a big family, the chief wouldn’t have to worry that his actors got recruited by another troupe.
As the chief, Mr. Chen Ming-ji was a very charming main actor on the stage. He was also an honest gentleman. That’s why so many parents wanted him to marry their daughters. His honest personality made all his six wives get along with one another really well.
Mr. Chen Ming-ji and all his wives lived under the same roof for years. However, the ones that stayed with him longer were his second wife, Chen Shuei-liang, and his fifth wife, Shiu shiou-Hwa.

Mr. Kuo is Mr. Chen Ming-ji’s adopted son. Mr. Kuo passed away in 2003. When he was twelve years old, a flood took away the lives of his family. He became an orphan. Mr. Chen not only adopted him but also let him keep his own last name, “Kuo”, since he was the only child left in the Kuo family.
Mr. Kuo is an excellent artist for accompaniment. He could play the drums, the suona horn, as well as the trumpet. He married Miss Wang Hwa-pen, the martial artist (wu sheng 武生) of Mr. Chen’s Taiwanese Opera troupe. Mr. Kuo and Miss Wang have three daughters and two sons. When he turned forty, Mr. Chen Ming-ji agreed to let him seek independence, to leave the Ming Hwa Yuan and establish the “New Ming Hwa Yuan”.

Mr. Chen Sheng-dian is actually Mr. Chen Ming-ji’s first born child. Mr. Chen Shen-dian passed away in 2003. Under Mr. Chen Ming-ji’s Taiwanese Opera theater troupe, his one daughter and seven sons were the major troupers. The director and playwright, Chen Sheng-guo, the fourth child of Mr. Chen Ming-ji, suggested that the Ming Hwa Yuan be divided into eight troupes led by the daughter and the sons. These eight troupes still carry the name, “Ming Hwa Yuan”, followed by the names, “Tien （天/The Heaven）, Di（地/The Earth）, Shiuan（玄/The Abstruse）, Huang（黃/The Yellow）, Jih（日/The Sun）, Yue（月/The Moon）, Shing（星/The Star）, Chen（辰/The Time）to distinguish these eight different troupes. The eight troupes function separately and independently. Therefore, Mr. Chen Sheng-dian was the chief of the Tien troupe of the Ming Hwa Yuan, and now his job is taken over by his son, Chen Jin-shing.
Mr. Chen Sheng-dian was kindred spirited with his father. That’s why he is Mr. Chen Ming-ji’s favorite son. He was good at playing the elderly man（老生/Lao Sheng）, the male jester (siao chou 小丑), and the drums. He married Miss Liou Shu-tz, the female lead (siao dan 小旦) and had one son and three daughters.

Although Chen Sheng-fu is the third child of the family, his role is more like a first-born. His ideas serve as a great asset to the Ming Hwa Yuan. After he took over his father’s role as the chief of the Ming Hwa Yuan Theater Troupes, he brought the methods of business management into the Ming Hwa Yuan, and furthermore, promote and present it to the whole world.
Mr. Chen Sheng-fu grew up in the theater troupe, however, he was the only one who didn’t become an actor. His sense of devotion to his family urged him to come home and take over. He established a new playwright & director convention, reformed the management of props and costumes, and adjusted the salary of the troupers and staffs. The Ming Hwa Yuan was therefore evolved into a new phase.
Mr. Chen Sheng-fu married Miss Suen Tsuei-feng. Miss Suen knew nothing about Taiwanese and Taiwanese Opera until she married into the family. She started to learn Taiwanese Opera when she was twenty-six years old. She strove hard to master Taiwanese, and overcome her physical limits. In the end, she became the male lead (siao sheng 小生) of the Ming Hwa Yuan Theater Troupe. Miss Suen won the “Ten Outstanding Young People Award” in 1996.

Chen Sheng-guo is the playwright & director of the Ming Hwa Yuan. Chen Sheng-guo never uses obsolete plots. He always comes up with modern and novel ideas to produce extraordinary scripts that deeply touch each of the Ming Hwa Yuan’s audience.
Chen Sheng-guo has preserved lots of information and historical records related to Taiwanese Opera. He has amazing memory about those materials he kept. Whoever asks him about the details of whichever play, he can immediately pull out the information from his memory.
His first script adopted on the stage was “Father & Son”. It helped him won the Best Director Award of National Local Drama Contest in 1982. This award boosted his confidence. Since then, he began to write scripts for large-scale performance of the Ming Hwa Yuan.

Chen Sheng-tzai is the Ming Hwa Yuan’s male lead jester. Among his brothers, he was the last to learn how to act. However, he inherited his father’s jester-playing talent, and became the hero in making the Ming Hwa Yuan’s success in artistic performance. In each large drama of the Ming Hwa Yuan, you’ll definitely see his dynamic character running around in the play.
Originally, the character of male jester in Taiwanese Opera had declined for a long time. It was because of Mr. Chen Sheng-tzai’s fantastic performance that revived the character. Moreover, he makes the male jester one of the three leading characters（the male lead, the female lead, and the male jester） in each large drama of the Ming Hwa Yuan.
Chen Sheng-tzai and his wife Jeng Ya-sheng together lead the Jih（日/the Sun） troupe of the Ming Hwa Yuan. In recent years, they have tried to train new actors through producing new plays on the stage.

Chen Sheng-fa is best at communicating with people. He can always solicit more clients than the other troupes. He is often called the “young boss” of the Ming Hwa Yuan.
Chen Sheng-fa leads the Shiuan（玄/The Abstruse） troupe of the Ming Hwa Yuan. He indicated that “Shiuan” in Chinese means the abstruse, the oracular, the mysterious, which symbolize the transition between reality and dream. Just like what he always believes in, “No pain, No gain. If one does not seek to realize his dream, he shall never turn his dream into reality.”
Chen Sheng-fa is good at playing the martial artist（wu sjemg武生）, and he also specializes in making props for Taiwanese Opera, such as horsewhips, spears and helmets. He married the actress Pan Jin-lian and together they have three sons and one daughter. Their children all play an important role in the Ming Hwa Yuan.

Chen Sheng-shuen is the youngest son of Mr. Chen Ming-ji. Among his brothers, he is the best actor and also good at martial arts.
Mr. Chen Sheng-shuen is very keen and sensitive to colors. His father Mr. Cheng Ming-ji decided to cultivate his artistic capacity. Now he does most of the stage set of the Ming Hwa-Yuan.
Mr. Chen Sheng-shuen’s another special gift is in music. He plays the guitar, the suona horn, and the erhu fiddle, and even some percussions instruments.
He married the actress & martial artist Miss Chang Chiou-lan. They have three sons, all of them are talented actors of the Ming Hwa Yuan.