Jang Chae-won
Age 263 Oct 2008
Seoul, Seoul Capital Area (South Korea)
Suicide
Jang died by suicide at her home in Hannam-dong, reportedly shortly after breaking up with her boyfriend.
Another suicide is now just coming to light, having been overshadowed by the suicide last Thursday of famous actress Choi Jin-shil. This time the victim is transgender entertainer Jang Chae-won, 26, who passed away at home on October 3.
Seoul police gave a statement on October 6, saying, “Jang Chae-won was found dead at home by friends, who made the report. We’ll have to investigate further before determining more details about the incident, but as of this moment there are no suspicions of foul play.”
Perhaps the signs were there in advance; apparently Jang had started posting messages on her personal homepage last month that went, “Will the end of my life be a comedy or a tragedy?” “Life is really tiresome,” and “I wish everything would go the way I wanted.” However, notable is that her message on October 1 was different in tone: “Right now I’m so happy~”
However, her last message posted on October 3 read, “Mom, I’m sorry. I’ll do better next time.”
Jang Chae-won’s profile rose in 2004 when she appeared on SBS’s Truth Game television program as a man dressing as a woman, noted for being even prettier than many [cisgender] women. Three years later, she took on a sex change operation and began to appear in the public eye once more.
This is really sad; I didn’t know much about her, but I do recall seeing her on TV back before her operation and thought she was really bright and cheerful.
Her death was not recorded on the official TDoR 2008 memorial list released by https://tdor.info.
http://www.dramabeans.com/2008/10/suicide-of-transgender-jang-chae-won-belatedly-revealed/
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/04/117_32236.html
https://channel-korea.com/jang-chae-wons-story/
http://nownews.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20081006603016
