Writer. She is best known for her autobiographical book "Stories of the Sahara," an account of her time in the Sahara Desert with her husband. Born Chen Mao-ping in China, her family moved to Taiwan when she was six due to the Communist takeover of China. She often avoided writing the character "Mao" (懋) in her name as it was too complicated to write, and would legally change her name to Chen Ping (陈平) later in life. She developed an interest in reading at a young age, but performed badly in school. She dropped out and was home schooled after an incident where her math teacher humiliated her in front of the class. She took painting and music lessons from tutors, and would adopt "Echo" as her English name to honor her favorite painting teacher, Gu Fusheng. She studied philosophy at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan, and at the age of 20, she moved to Madrid, Spain and began studying at the Complutense University of Madrid. There, she met José María Quero y Ruíz. She would later move to Germany, and earn a qualification to teach German and begin studying ceramics. At the age of 26, she returned to Taiwan to work as a teacher. Her first engagement was to a teacher from Germany, but he died before they could marry. She then returned to Madrid where she taught English at a primary school. In 1973, she married José María Quero y Ruíz in the Spanish Sahara. They lived here until 1975, when Spain relinquished the territory to Morocco. They then moved to the Canary Islands. In 1976, she published "Stories of the Sahara", based on her experiences of living in the Sahara with José. Following the book's immense success, her early writings, which were written when she studied abroad, were collected and published in the book "Gone With the Rainy Season". In 1979, her husband José drowned to death in a diving accident. After his death, she returned to Taiwan in 1980, where she continued to write and teach. From 1981 to 1984, she taught at her alma mater, the Chinese Culture University. She published more than 20 books, wrote lyrics for popular songs, including "Olive Tree," sung by Chyi Yu, and also wrote the script to the film "Red Dust", released in 1990. After being diagnosed with cancer, she committed suicide in 1991 while undergoing treatment at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital.