Peter Yung was born in Hong Kong in 1949 and works as a film director and photographer, and is one of the directors of the Hong Kong New Wave. He studied under James Wong Howe, the cinematographer who won Academy Awards for black-and-white cinematography in 1956 and 1964, studying photography and working as an assistant cameraman from 1969 to 1971; in 1971 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, having made the thirty-minute documentary A Day in Los Angeles while there. He returned to Hong Kong in 1972 as a cinematographer and held his first solo photography exhibition in 1973, sponsored by James Wong Howe. He spent years making investigative documentaries before turning to fiction, and his films combine documentary observation with drama. In 1979, self-financing the project and taking on production, writing and directing duties, he completed his debut feature The System, an intimate study of the interdependent yet mutually betraying relations between police, informers and drug dealers, and a landmark of the New Wave. He later made documentaries on Xinjiang and published two photography books on the region, portraying the interaction of people, land and culture. He has served as a lecturer, adviser and committee member for tertiary institutions and professional bodies, as an executive member of the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild, a film and media arts adviser to the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, an executive committee member of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and a juror for the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Hong Kong–Asia Film Financing Forum. Born the sixth of eight children of a Chaozhou family, he was the son of a plastics manufacturer. A cargo-ship trip to Taiwan at fourteen sparked his interest in photography; unable to study art in Los Angeles because of his English, he spent a year improving it at the University of Southern California before being accepted.
Peter Yung is known in the Hong Kong New Wave for bringing documentary method to fiction; his 1979 The System presents triad codes and the drug trade in a semi-documentary manner and ranks among the most realistic Hong Kong films of its time. He has also long been involved in film education, juries and arts development, and served as an executive member of the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild.
Achievements
- 1971 · Earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, having made the short documentary A Day in Los Angeles
- 1973 · Held his first solo photography exhibition, sponsored by James Wong Howe
- 1979 · Completed his first feature, The System, a semi-documentary study of triad codes of conduct