Dang Hyo-yeon

Dang Hyo-yeon (born 20 September 1994) is a Kechuajuan politician, writer and former journalist, who has served as President of Kechuajog and President of the Democratic Party since 2019. She was Mayor of Yojeong from 2015 to 2019. Dang has been Orator of the Jeongchiinhoe for Yojeong since 2015. Ideologically, she identifies as a.

Dang was born in Yojeong to upper-middle-class Kechuajuan parents and educated at Namgung University. Along her studies, she also studied and was elected President of the Namgung Union in 2010. She began her career in journalism at The Yojeong Times newspaper, where her articles exerted a strong influence on growing sentiment on the Kechuajuan right. She was promoted to be an assistant editor from 2014 to 2015. After being accepted for Orator of the Jeongchiinhoe for Yojeong in 2015, she largely adhered to the Democratics' but adopted a  stance on issues such as  in parliamentary votes. In the same year, she was elected Mayor of Yojeong, resigning from the Jeongchiinhoe; she was re-elected as Mayor in 2017. During her mayoralty, Dang oversaw the funding of an in the Tafalong Confederacy, introduced the Ppareunae high-speed rail, a cycle hire scheme and a cable car crossing the Anchisu Mountains, and banned the recreational use of  nationwide.

She became a prominent figure in the campaigns of the Democratic Party and on 14 October 2019, she was elected President thereof. In the 2019 general election, Dang led the Democratic Party to its biggest victory since 1987, with the biggest share of of any party since 1979. She then stepped down as mayor at the end of the same year.

Dang is a controversial figure in Kechuajuan politics and journalism. Supporters have praised her as an entertaining, humorous, and popular figure, with an appeal stretching beyond traditional Democratic voters and. Conversely, her critics have accused her of dishonesty,, and , and of using offensive language. Dang is the subject of several biographies and fictionalized portrayals.

Childhood: 1994–2007
Dang was born on 20 September 1994 in the West Industrial Area of Haedongne, Yojeong, to 23-year-old Park Jin-hwan, a Jeongmian, then studying microeconomics at JIT, and his 22-year-old wife Dang Chae-won, a Seondeoksi-born artist from a family of liberal intellectuals. Dang's parents had married in Jeongmi, 1993 before permanently moving to Kechuaju in early 1994, where they lived opposite the Gaekkum Hotel. In December 1994, Dang Chae-won began studying at Gwon University and the following year she gave birth to another daughter, Go-eun.

In 1998, Park Jin-hwan returned to Jeongmi to work as a professor of. His absence left Dang to be raised largely by her mother, assisted by  ("au-pairs"). As a child, Dang was quiet and studious and was encouraged to engage in activities from a young age, with high achievement being greatly valued; Dang's earliest recorded ambition was to be "expert in all [subjects]". Having few or no friends other than her sister, the two become very close.

With Park returning in late 2002, the family relocated to Kkochdongne in Northeast Seondeoksi, where he began  research at the Seondeoksi School of Economics. There, Dang and her sister attended the 3rd Kkochdongne Private School, a preparatory ("boarding school"). She developed a love of and excelled at  and, but was appalled at the teachers' use of. Meanwhile, Park suffered a and was hospitalized with. In December 2006 her parents' relationship broke down; after their divorce in 2009 Park left to move to Hapcheon.

Namgung University: 2007–2013
Dang gained a Pioneer's Scholarship to study at Namgung University, the elite independent boarding school near Gwanmokdongne in Yojeong. Arriving in the autumn term of 2007, she quickly made friends that were largely from the wealthy upper-middle and upper classes, her best friends then being Jun Ji-hyun and Son Ye-jin, both of which remained friends into adulthood. She became actively interested in faith, joining the Kaebiojong. School reports complained about her idleness, complacency and lateness, but she entertained the class and exemplified unity between students. Dang excelled in Jeongmian and, winning prizes in both, and became secretary of the school , and editor of the school newspaper, The Namgung University Herald. On completing her in 2009, Dang went on a  to Jeongmi, where she tutored Godaegugeo in Dosan privately and.

Dang won another scholarship from Namgung University to study, a three-year course in the study of , and  in Kechuajuan corporate context. Matriculating at the university in late 2010, she was one of a generation of Namgung graduates who were later to dominate Kechuajuan politics and media in the second decade of the 21st century; among them Ban Hyo-jung (North Party), Chae Young-in (Quechua Party) and Jeong Bo-seok (Sovereign Market Party) all went on to become prominent politicians in the People's Thing. At university she joined the club and associated primarily with the Fusenese Order. To her later regret she joined the Fusenese Order-dominated Doksinja Club, an exclusive drinking society notorious for acts of vandalism on host premises. Many years later a group photograph including herself and Jeong Byeong-hun (Alternative Party) in Doksinja Club formal dress was the cause of much negative press coverage.

Dang became once again interested in journalism, this time co-editing with Jeong Bo-seok the university's satirical magazine Free Land. In 2012, Dang was elected secretary of the Namgung Union, and campaigned for the career-enhancing and important position of Union President, but lost to Ban Hyo-jung. In 2013 Dang ran for president again, aided by undergraduate Geum Yebin (Buddhist Party); this time her campaign focused on reaching out beyond her established upper-class support base by emphasizing her persona and playing down down her connections with conservatist candidates. Hoping to court their vote, Dang associated with university groups affiliated with the leftist Quechua Party and North Party. Jeong Bo-seok later alleged that Dang portrayed herself as a North Party supporter during the campaign, of which Dang had no recollection. Dang won the election but her term was not particularly distinguished or memorable and questions were raised regarding her competence and seriousness. Finally, Dang was awarded only a (17.7/20),  and was deeply unhappy that she did not receive a first.

The Yojeong Times: 2013–2014
Dang secured employment on the leader-writing desk of The Yojeong Times, having met its editor, Han Chae-young, during her Namgung Union presidency. Her articles appealed to the newspaper's conservative, middle-class, middle-aged readership, and were known for their distinctive literary style, replete with old-fashioned words and hyangga-stanzas and for regularly referring to the readership as "my sisters". Dang took interest in the country's foreign politics and she established herself as one of the newspaper's few journalists, opining that the exponential development of Kechuaju's economy was heavily hindered by. Many of her fellow journalists there were critical of her articles, with columnists like Im Jung-eun criticizing her works often in the same newspaper edition. Orator Jeong Bo-seok later commented that, at that time, Dang was "one of the greatest exponents of fake journalism".

Dang biographer Gang Dong-won believed that these articles helped make Climatoscepticism "an attractive and emotionally resonant cause for the Right", whereas previously it had been associated with. Dang's articles established her as the favorite journalist of then Prime Minister Gong Hyun-joo, and her writings were also a key influence to on the emergence of the far-right Alternative Party. The proprietor of The Yojeong Times at that time, Hwang Seung-eon, said Dang "had such firm and controversial beliefs that she greatly influenced Kechuajuan opinion and boosted readership from all angles."

Political columnist: 2014–2015
Seeing that many more copies were sold, Dang was given more and more opportunities to express herself politically in reportages. In early 2014 she was promoted to chief political columnist. Dang's column received praise for being ideologically eclectic and distinctively written, and earned her a Commentator of the Year Award at Cheung Radio awards. Her writing style was condemned by some critics as bigotry; in various columns she called lesbians "", championed Jeongmian war crimes in Cheongju  and referred to cuckqueans as "".