Chung, Young Yang (b. 1936)

Young Yang CHUNG, b. 1936. Young Yang CHUNG, b. 1936.

Young Yang CHUNG (c. 1936) is a South Korean textile historian and vembroiderer who specialises in traditional East Asian textiles. She was born in Seoul, but during the Korean War (1950-1953) she and her family sought refuge in a village southwest of the capital. Here she is said to have taught local women to embroider in the Western (French) style and where she learnt about Korean styles of embroidery.

After the war, the Chung family moved back to Seoul and it was here that Young Yang CHUNG learnt more about embroidery, Korean culture and so forth. She became a teacher of embroidery and used this medium to help many South Korean women to earn a living. In 1965 she founded the International Embroidery School in Seoul, in order to train Korean embroidery artists. Then in 1967, Chung and the Ministry of Social Work established South Korea's first vocational embroidery school, The Women's Center.

Chung migrated to the USA in the 1970's and in 1976 she earned a PhD, entitled The Origins and Historical Development of Embroidery in China, Japan and Korea from New York University, USA. In 2001 she received an honorary doctorate from Sookmyung University, Seoul, for her work on the history of embroidery. Since then, Chung has been writing and lecturing about Asian embroidery and Korean embroidery in particular. 

In 2004 she founded the Chung Yung Embroidery Museum, Seoul, Korea.

Main publications by Young Yang CHUNG:

  • The Origins and Historical Development of Embroidery in China, Japan, and Korea, New York University, PhD thesis, 1976.
  • The Art of Oriental Embroidery, New York: Scribner, 1979.
  • Painting with a Needle: Learning The Art of Silk Embroidery with Young Yang Chung, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
  • Silken Threads: Embroidered Court Costume, and Rank Insignia of China, Japan Korea, and Vietnam, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005.

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 5th June 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Wednesday, 31 May 2017 16:52