Li's father gave his eldest son the pen name Hsiao Yeh, and both parents encouraged him to write.

The next year, he and Edward Yang shared the 1987 Asia-Pacific Film Festival Award for best screenplay after co-writing Terrorizers.

[1] Hsiao Yeh stated in 2001 that, while he was at CMPC, many of his superiors came from military backgrounds and films were often made according to Kuomintang-led governmental directives.

Shortly after starting May Productions, Hsiao Yeh won the 1990 Golden Horse Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

[6] In March 2013, Li participated in an anti-nuclear demonstration planned by the Green Citizens' Action Alliance [zh] and held around the Presidential Office.

[7] Days later, he and another former CMPC colleague, Ko I-chen [zh], among others, started the Five Six Movement, in opposition to nuclear technologies.