[1] Bang Yeong-ung was born on 20 July 1942 in Yesan, Chūseinan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan.
He graduated from Whimoon High School and made his debut with "The Story of Bullye", published in the journal Creation and Criticism (Changjak gwa bipyeong) in 1967.
His works from 1960s tend to be set in rural communities while those from 1970s have urban settings, but the characters they portray are basically similar: simple-hearted, tenacious people who may not emerge victorious, but who endure, like hearty wildflowers, lives filled with inconsolable sorrows and formidable adversities.
In particular, the rural characters he sketches often find it impossible to accept any other life than the one they have always known; for this reason, they are tragically left behind in a rapidly changing world.
A degree of fatalism can be detected in "The Story of Bullye" (Bullyegi, 1967) and The Moon (Dal), but certain hopefulness persists throughout the body of Bang Yeong-ung's work.