Chang Yong-hak
Chang Yong-hak was a South Korean writer.
Biography
Chang was born in 1921 in Puryong County, North Hamgyong Province, Chōsen, Empire of Japan. He graduated from Kyongsong High School in 1940. He studied at Waseda University in Japan, before being drafted into the Japanese army. After the end of World War Two, he was a teacher at Chongjin girl's middle school in North Korea but in 1947 he defected to South Korea and worked as a teacher at Hanyang industrial high school and Muhak girl's high school. In the early 1960s he worked as a professor at Deokseong women's university, but soon began to work in journalism, working as a commentator at the Dong-a Ilbo and Kyonghyang sinmun, writing fiction on the side.
Works
While he worked as a teacher in Hanyang industrial high school. he wrote his first work "Yuksu " in 1947 and published his work "Huihwa " on the Yonhap sinmun in 1949. The first work he got famous as an author was his short story, translated as "The Poems of John the Baptist", was a critical success in Korea.
Chang has been characterized as an idea novelist influenced by Sartre and philosophical ideas both Oriental and Occidental and as a writer of fantasy.