He won the Caldecott Medal for "Lon Po Po," which is a retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood." He was also a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1992 and 2000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Po_Po

Strangely, the only obit I can find right now is in...Chinese!

I mean, I would have expected his LOCAL newspaper, at least, to have a nice long tribute waiting...

https://www.sohu.com/a/725032506_114988

Translation:

This morning, a reporter from the Beijing News learned that Yang Zhicheng, a well-known Chinese picture book writer, passed away on September 30. "In the pouring rain on the night of the full moon, Yang Zhicheng passed away peacefully in his sleep. In his own words, 'He lived with the grace of the miracle of life... His daughter was by his side. His family, dear friends His friends and concerned students are deeply saddened. Now, he and his dear Professor Cheng are somewhere in the universe." The news came from Ellyce Cavanaugh, a student of Yang Zhicheng.

Tan Fengxia, a professor at the School of Liberal Arts at Nanjing Normal University, confirmed the news. Tan Fengxia said, "At around 4 o'clock in the morning, I received an email on the train station platform. My beloved Mr. Yang Zhicheng was traveling far away. He had a great life and wished heaven would be well. The last email he sent me the day before yesterday was about what he wanted to do. Book donation. Reviewing the two pictures he sent in the previous email exchange, I shed thousands of tears and the feelings are engraved in my heart. In Ed's own words, He lived in grace among the miracles of life. (In Yang Zhicheng's own words, he Live in the grace of the miracle of life.)”

In 1931, Yang Zhicheng was born in Tianjin. When he was 3 years old, Yang Zhicheng moved to Shanghai with his family. Here, Yang Zhicheng’s father, Yang Kuanlin, China’s first-generation structural engineering design master, rented a piece of land and personally designed and built a small building for his family to live in. In 1948, Yang Zhicheng went to Hong Kong to study, and in 1951 he went to study in the United States. In the United States, he first studied architecture for two years and then transferred to the California Art Center College of Design. After completing his studies, he worked in advertising design in New York.

Yang Zhicheng has a rich life experience and a wide range of hobbies. He has lived and lived in many cities and regions. These experiences have had a profound impact on his creations. During his lifetime, Yang Zhicheng created about 100 picture books, such as "Princess's Kite", "Grandma Wolf" and "Seven Blind Mice". His works have won many honors, including a gold medal and two honorary awards from the Caldecott Medal, the highest award in the American children's book industry, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of American Illustrators, and two nominations for the International Andersen Award. His works have also been selected for the " New York Times Top Ten Picture Books, etc.

In 1968, Yang Zhicheng won the Caldecott Honor Award for "The Princess's Kite". In 1990, his work "Wolf Granny" won the Caldecott Medal. In 1992, Yang Zhicheng's "Seven Blind Mice" once again won the Caldecott Honor Award. In addition, his other works have received many honors and awards at home and abroad. Among them, "Seven Blind Mice" was selected into the "Top 100 Chinese Books of 2014" by the National Library; in the "2016 Laurel Children's Book" selection, "Seven Blind Mice" was named "Best Children's Book of the Year" ; In 2017, "Grandma Wolf" won the "White Crow Award", the International Children's Literature Award. Up to now, many of his important works, such as "Seven Blind Mice", "Grandma Wolf", "Ye Xian", "Tiger in the Snow Mountain", and "The House That Dad Built", have been introduced and published. (Introduction/He Anan)

A special reporter from the Beijing News conducted an exclusive interview with Yang Zhicheng in 2019. We publish this old article as a commemoration.

Chinese picture book writer Yang Zhicheng,

A person born under special historical circumstances

Interview and writing｜Beijing News special correspondent Zeng Menglong

Chinese picture book writer Yang Zhicheng,

Around 1977, Ed Young, who was studying and working in the United States, finally had the opportunity to return to China to visit relatives after nearly 30 years.

"This is a surprising thing. Because I haven't seen my mother for more than 20 years, I don't know what it will feel like to return to China, and I don't know how my mother will feel. I watched people in the movie who I haven't seen for 20 years, and I cried and laughed. At that time, I It was not easy to fly back or pick up the plane. We didn’t have a car or a taxi at home, so we took a bus to get home from the airport. The bus stop was outside the courtyard, which was actually very close to home. My mother was in her 70s at the time. Now, she was waiting for me at the bus stop. I was dark. She came to me. My family calls me Ed. She said, Ed, have you had dinner? I said, yes, but it was all food. Things on the plane. She said, I made porridge with preserved eggs and meat floss. You can eat some tonight. Then, she held my hand and we walked back all the way. It seemed like we just left the day before and came back today. There was no excitement at all, as if he had never been out." Yang Zhicheng recalled.
__________________________________________________

He has at least four entries in the "Something About the Author" encyclopedias and an entry in volume 27 of the "Children's Literature Review" encyclopedias.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/ed-young/
(DOZENS of Kirkus reviews)

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/ed-young.html
(many PW reviews)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/15420.Ed_Young
(reader reviews)

Here's what I posted in 2011:

Aka Tse-chun Young, he was born in Tientsin, China. After he and his
parents dodged the Japanese many times, he grew up in Shanghai and
moved to the U.S. in 1951. He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New
York.

He was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1992 and
2000.

He's illustrated works by Jane Yolen, Mary Calhoun, Nancy Larrick,
Jean Fritz, Elizabeth F. Lewis, Margaret Hillert, Jack London, Oscar
Wilde, & Robert Frost. Not to mention plenty of his own retellings of
folk tales!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/books/review/picture-books-about-childhoods-in-wartime-asia.html
(article about Young)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Young_(illustrator)
(Includes booklist.)

Excerpt:
Caldecott Medal: Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China (1989).
Caldecott Honor: The Emperor and the Kite. (1968)
Caldecott Honor: Seven Blind Mice (1992)

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1576
(some book descriptions, with covers - one is "Tsunami!", from 2009)

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3515
(Ed Young Webcast, from Library of Congress - it's 18 minutes long)
https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/2005/12/authorillustrator-interview-ed-young/
(interview from 2005)

(And here's a "Meet the Author" interview that I can't seem to find
the rest of.)

Excerpt:
"My first book got the attention of an agent who, in turn, brought me
more books. Five years later, I received my first Caldecott Honor. I
was on my summit. Or so I thought.

"Fortunately, a master of Chinese sumi brush came into my life and
brought me down to earth. He magically transformed blank paper into
images that were full of life, without the aid of props or models or
pictures. I hadn't been aware that lifelike images express the souls
of both the painter and his subject. Compared to the master's, my
achievements were mere imitations of things. I needed to observe the
life inside things and express myself through them, and to do so I
needed to be still and listen and see more. I needed to look between
forms, between lines, beyond the paper-to visualize sounds and smells,
grasp motions, reveal invisibles, sense the relationship of colors,
shapes, textures and pattern, of timelessness, the infinite and
universal. My bliss beckoned again, and I followed."

http://images.google.com/search?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&q=%22ed+young%22+illustrator&biw=1280&bih=834&sei=3A_UTp6tAcru0gHK3OQw&tbm=isch
(photos & book covers)

The first time I saw a gorgeous drawing of his, it was on the cover of Marjorie Seddon Johnson's 1968 "Joys and Journeys" textbook. You can see that here:

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=569845833&rlz=1CAJMBU_enUS1077&q=%22joys+and+journeys%22+book&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj55rXq-NSBAxUXjIkEHXbyDr0Q0pQJegQIDBAB&biw=1366&bih=644&dpr=1

I know him mainly for his illustrations of the tragic story "The Voice of the Great Bell," retold by Margaret Hodges, 1989, taken from Lafcadio Hearn's
retelling. You can read Hearn's version here:

https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2016/06/the-soul-of-great-bell.html

(it's about the Yongle Bell, in Beijing, cast in 1403 - there's a photo of the bell; you'll have to click one more time)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/books/ed-young-dead.html

Excerpts:

By Clay Risen
Oct. 3, 2023

Ed Young, whose illustrations in some 100 children’s books, many of which he also wrote, mesmerized young and not-so-young readers with intricate depictions of fairy tales, poetry and his own life story as a Chinese immigrant, died on Sept. 29 at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 91.

His daughter Antonia Young confirmed the death.

Mr. Young trained as an architect and worked as a graphic designer; he never intended to become an illustrator of children’s books. But a chance opportunity to work on the book “The Mean Mouse and Other Mean Stories” (1962), by Janice May Udry, led to widespread praise, a deal with an agent and a 60-year career as one of the country’s most beloved children’s artists.

He churned out books across a wide variety of subjects and media, among them collage, pencil and charcoal, and experimented with different bookmaking formats, like accordion.

Many of his favorite techniques drew on traditions from his native China, which also inspired much of his subject matter. The first book that he also wrote, “Lon Po Po” (1991), told a traditional Chinese version of “Little Red Riding Hood,” though in this case it involved three girls who settle matters with the wolf themselves, no huntsman needed.

....Though his work was met with consistent praise, one common criticism was that his illustrations were too richly rendered for children to appreciate — a knock that the soft-spoken Mr. Young politely but firmly rejected.

“They respond with fascination,” he told The New York Times in 1992, adding, “I always find children much more sophisticated than people suppose. My feeling is that children are just as capable of understanding these ranges of emotions as adults.”...

(snip)

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/93309-obituary-ed-young.html
(pretty long)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/childrens-author-illustrator-ed-young-dies-at-91/

https://bookriot.com/childrens-author-and-illusted-young-dies-at-91/

On Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 9:35:53 AM UTC-4, Lenona wrote:

http://images.google.com/search?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&q=%22ed+young%22+illustrator&biw=1280&bih=834&sei=3A_UTp6tAcru0gHK3OQw&tbm=isch
(photos & book covers)
The first time I saw a gorgeous drawing of his, it was on the cover of Marjorie Seddon Johnson's 1968 "Joys and Journeys" textbook. You can see that here:
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=569845833&rlz=1CAJMBU_enUS1077&q=%22joys+and+journeys%22+book&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj55rXq-NSBAxUXjIkEHXbyDr0Q0pQJegQIDBABbiw=1366&bih=644&dpr=1
I know him mainly for his illustrations of the tragic story "The Voice of the Great Bell," retold by Margaret Hodges, 1989, taken from Lafcadio Hearn's
retelling. You can read Hearn's version here:
https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2016/06/the-soul-of-great-bell.html
(it's about the Yongle Bell, in Beijing, cast in 1403 - there's a photo of the bell; you'll have to click one more time)

___________________________________________________________________________

I was hoping to find a video of the bell - it's over 21 feet tall. I'm not quite sure if any of these match, but they're nice to watch anyway. I've never heard a bell that sounded like that.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=yongle+bell+beijing

(The video with the four monks ringing the bell in Taiwan - clearly NOT the same bell - keeps getting stuck. Hope that doesn't happen on your end.)

A bit more about the bell:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=google.com+yongle+bell

And in case anyone missed it, you really should read the short legend as told by Lafcadio Hearn; it's very much on-topic, sad to say.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.loa.org/images/pdf/Hearn_Great_Bell.pdf
(no illustrations here)

SEMI-SPOILER

From Helen Gregory at the School Library Journal:

"(Ed Young's) pictures are impressionistic, thankfully, for martyrdom is not pretty."