The first female playwright in the history of chuanju (Sichuan Opera) and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Born in 1933, she began working as a playwright at the Chengdu Sichuan Opera Theatre in 1961 and continued writing prolifically even after retirement, producing a string of excellent works.
Her representative chuanju works include: Yanyan, Ripples on Stagnant Water, The Raging Tide in the Sea of Desire, and Lady Macbeth, as well as the plays The Xinhai Revolution, The Lanke Mountain, the Jingju (Beijing Opera), The One and Only, the dance drama Flowers of Distant Mountains, and the novel Su Dongpo.
Xu Fen has won numerous national awards, including the Wenhua Award, the Five One Project Award, and the National Excellent Script Award. Her works have been instrumental in helping 12 actors win the Plum Blossom Award for Drama, earning her the reputation of being a "nursery for theatrical talent"