Young Yang Chung - Scholastic Achievement in The Art of Embroidery

Scholastic Achievement in The Art of Embroidery

In the U.S., she devoted considerable time and effort to the study of Western and Eastern embroideries in the Textile Study Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The affirmation of East Asian identity and history remained one of the main objectives in Young Yang Chung's embroidery as well as her scholarly activities. She completed her Masters and Ph.D. in Art Education at New York University. Her Ph.D. dissertation, entitled The Origins and Historical Development of Embroidery in China, Japan, and Korea was the first in-depth academic study of this topic, providing the foundation for embroidery as an academic field. As a rare reference on this little-studied subject, her doctoral dissertation was published in 1978 in book form by UMI Dissertation Services.

Through her work activities and academic research, Dr. Chung has established the distinctiveness and history of East Asian embroidery. For example, through her screen depicting ancient musical instruments, she not only produced an accurate visual representation of the subject, but also evoked deeply felt cultural ideals, as these traditional musical instruments fully capture the spirit of the Korean people, who value tradition highly.

In the 1970s, Dr. Chung was called in as a consultant for an exhibition of Chinese dragon robes at the Metropolitan Museum, and had the opportunity to study the response of the visitors. This inspired Dr. Chung to set forth on a campaign - through lectures, demonstrations, writings, teaching, workshops, and exhibitions of her work - to elevate the public conception and knowledge of embroidery.

Her first book, The Art of Oriental Embroidery (published in 1979), became a standard reference in the field, and in it she emphasized embroidery's antiquity, and challenged the notion that textiles are “minor arts.” She explained that embroidery vividly records the technological and socio-economic milieu in which it was produced, and provides evidence of cultural exchange, regional aesthetics, and the maker's individual creativity. These pioneering efforts introduced East Asian embroidery to Western audiences, and fostered an ever-increasing appreciation of and interest in the art of silk embroidery.

Western enthusiasm for Asian embroidery eventually led, for example, to the establishment of the Japanese Embroidery Center in Atlanta, which teaches traditional Asian techniques to American students. Dr. Chung's works have been acquired by museums such as the Smithsonian Institution. Silken Threads, published in 2005 in the United States, summarizes the history of the embroiderers' art; it is the result of her lifetime of study, and can be viewed as the only comprehensive academic textbook on embroidery.