Judy Ling Wong

Ling Wong was born and raised in Hong Kong.[1] As a child, Ling Wong trained in Chinese traditional painting. She became a professional artist at the age of 12. She moved to Australia, where she attended Clyde School. She studied architecture at the University of Melbourne. In 1972 Ling Wong moved to Europe, and lived in West Berlin where she worked as a painter.

Ling Wong moved to Britain in 1974. She worked as a painter, dancer and poet.[2] She wrote a series of books, on nursery rhymes and ballet.[3] She is based in Llanberis.[4]

In 1987 she established the Black Environment Network (BEN), building relationships between people from ethnic minorities and the built environment. In 1990 the BEN merged with the Ethnic Minority Award Scheme (EMAS), with BEN becoming more of a political project.[5] Ling Wong has encouraged more people from minority ethnic backgrounds to visit the countryside.[6][7] BEN championed the message that countryside access is not an access issue but a rights issue, challenging the notion that the English countryside is a "white space".[5] Ling Wong worked to emphasise the relationship between environmentalism and the countryside.[5] The National Alliance of Women's Organisations investigated rural racism and its intersection with gender.[5]

She services on the advisory board of the University of Gloucestershire Countryside and Community Research Institute.[8] She is a trustee of the National Park City Foundation and is a member of the steering group for the movement to make London a national park city.[9][10] Ling is delivering the 2019 Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment Lecture at Imperial College London.