Life of Guangzhou - Korean Boy and His Book "Zooming into Guangzhou"

Yu Seung-hyun and his book (Southern Metropolis Daily)

The Guangzhou Bureau of Education recently received an unusual gift. Inside the package was Zooming into Guangzhou, a book introducing Cantonese culture in English and Korean, written by Yu Seung-hyun, an 18-year-old Korean young man now studying in Guangzhou.

On arrival: depressed by the language gap

Seven years ago, Yu came to Guangzhou with his parents. The hot weather made him feel uncomfortable but even worse was the huge difference in language. He recalls his first day in a local primary school, "It sucked. I could not even understand a single word; I just sat there in the class with nobody to play with." Later, he spent all his time learning Chinese and graduated from primary school with moderate grade in his Chinese test. Today, he can speak fluent mandarin.

Get to know GZ via newspapers

People are getting more and more curious about Guangzhou ahead of the 2010 Asian Games, but most of their impressions are out-of-date. Yu tries hard to change their opinion of the city and on his father's advice, he began to read local newspapers from which he learned about morning tea and fell in love with Cantonese dim sums. Last year, Yu started a blog which focuses on recording daily life in Guangzhou and now has many Korean followers.

Farewell to the city with a book

Yu never thought of publishing a book until he was bombarded by questions about Guangzhou last summer when he returned to Korea. Hardly any book offered a satisfying introduction to the city so he decided to compile his own articles, translating and editing the content as "a gift for the Asian Games." Yu plans to leave Guangzhou next year to further his studies in the U.S. .

(By Wu Jianshan, David Keyton)