Zhong-Yang Huang

Zhong-Yang Huang was born 1949 in Guangzhou, China. He was raised in an artistic family; at the age of four, he was encouraged to learn Chinese painting and was taught calligraphy techniques. During the Cultural Revolution, at the age of 15, he was sent to the fields to be re-educated through immersion in rural peasant life, where he remained for 10 years. In 1977 he applied as was accepted into the master of fine arts program at Guangzhou Academy Fine Arts, graduating in 1981. He was an instructor there from 1981 to 1984, when he traveled to Canada to pursue a second master of fine art from University of Regina, graduating in 1988. From 2013 to 2016, Yang returned to China to teach at the University of Guangzhou as a professor, before returning to Regina to live and work. He painted the official portrait of Governor General Ramon John Hnatyshyn (1994), the official portrait of Premier Roy Romanow for the Saskatchewan Government (1995) and major mural paintings for both the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Royal Alberta Museum (1993-97). The MacKenzie Art Gallery featured a solo exhibition, The Shadow of Mao, by Yang in 2011.His contributions to the visual arts have been recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) and the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal (2005).

In addition to I Am Not A Ghost, Zhong-Yang Huang shared many Chinese stories with his good friend David Bouchard, and they collaborated on the following books, with all art by Zhong-Yang. The Dragon of Heaven, and the “Chinese Legends” series, which consists of The Great Race, The Dragon New Year, The Mermaid’s Muse, and Buddha in the Garden.