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The three-day 2008 Asia Youth Culture Camp (AYCC), whose theme was ‘Asia, Culture and Environment,’ was hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and supported by Chonnam National University (CNU), and the United Nations Programme for the Environment. Its goal was to promote Gwangju as [...]

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The three-day 2008 Asia Youth Culture Camp (AYCC), whose theme was ‘Asia, Culture and Environment,’ was hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and supported by Chonnam National University (CNU), and the United Nations Programme for the Environment. Its goal was to promote Gwangju as an Asian cultural hub city, to explore the environment and climate change, and the prospects of cultural cooperation between European, American and Asia countries.

The first day included Asian cultural performances and panel discussions about culture and the environment. The second day was an Asian Cultural Forum, and group speeches of the participants. The third day, dubbed “mission impossible” was a Gwangju cultural experience tour. This cultural camp attracted more than 70 college students from Asia with nearly one hundred people from around the world participating. The Asia Culture Forum invited a number of well-known international experts and scholars such as the director of the Liverpool Biennale, an Italian intellectual and literary critic, and the director of the National Art Center of Tokyo, to discuss and work together to promote Gwangju as Asia’s Cultural Hub Center.

The camp requested the participants make a presentation, with prize money for the top five participants. First prize was financial support to take part in the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan, Poland. This was won by Korean student Kang Shin-woo, who had just returned from studies in Oxford, England.

It was lucky for me to be one of the participants in this camp. To be honest, the tight schedule was hard at first, but I never imagined that after just three days, I would be reluctant to leave and that there would be a kind of sadness in the bottom of my heart. Sure enough, the relationship between humans has some business with fate, even if it takes a long time to recognize this.

The first day
Sitting alone at the opening ceremony with the giant banner that said “Asia Youth Culture Camp,” I took a deep breath, but when I saw all the other participants, I knew I had the same face as them: a little bit nervous and excited, with a little pressure from the challenge. The chief’s similar words from the first episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” were lingering in my mind, which I think were equally applicable that moment: “Look around you. Say hello to your competition. How well can you play? That’s up to you.”

The participants were divided into seven groups, each group with two observers, starting the group discussion directly. I think I began to realize the competition started right away.

In the first discussion we had four minutes to present our two- to three-page papers. Coming one after another, the group discussions weighed heavy on my brain, plus I needed to constantly focus on “strange” English pronunciation from the Indian campers to avoid missing some important words. A variety of environmental protection programs needed to be remembered to ensure that the observer could mark your performance as well as a timed morning cross-panel discussion. The pressure was immense.

The hour hand went to 1 a.m. and we had to leave in case the door of our dormitory was closed. Walking back to the dormitory, someone sighed: “It’s a long day.” Yes, a tight schedule, from the afternoon into the next morning, gave us no chance to take a breath.

The second day
Possibly due to some wrong arrangements, we were brought into the main venue to attend the Asia Culture Forum, and not only lucky enough to sit in the guest seats at the long satin table, but also equipped with information data and simultaneous interpretation headphones for each person.

I stealthily looked around, and there were a lot of people working on laptops at those seats after we left. Photographers were in the last seats, and the director did the monitoring. I began to realize that this was a genuine international conference scene, because those who sat with me were real scholars and experts with international influence in Asia and beyond. I almost forgot that I was just a participant because it felt like an official press conference. I had inner excitement, but was sitting on pins and needles.

After dinner, the presentations of other groups were made by only one person from each group, which we thought didn’t highlight the word “team,” so we decided that everyone could be responsible for one slide. Every one of us devoted our heart and soul to this, which didn’t happen at the first day of competition. We did a preview 10 minutes before our stage call to perfect our timing, even thinking about some special action to highlight our talk. No one was yet aware that some tacit understandings had been established, and some of the feelings had fermented into friendships.

After yelling some invigorating words to each other, we stood on the stage. Facing the unfamiliar faces of audience with the group, I felt a wave of insecurity.

The third day
In the early morning of the third day, we were told to form a new team to allow more people to communicate and complete a “mission impossible”. But I kept looking for those familiar faces, even when I stood with the new team.

The “mission impossible” for our team was to find teacher Gaofeng in Wol Bong Seo Won with only 100,000 won for the whole day. After getting off the bus, we didn’t expect there would be a unique, beautiful scene: vast fields surrounded by continuous mountains and long roads. Golden leaves of unknown trees gently fell, covering both sides of the road. At the end of the road was a school on the hillside; our destination! The afternoon sunlight on our faces made everyone feel sleepy, with the wind-bell from the roof angle ringing gently. Simultaneously we met the teacher by chance.

We were invited to drink fresh green tea, to climb the mountain to see two ancestral tombs surrounded by the forest, on an open space of a mountainside. From it, I found there were still a lot of mountains concealed with sacred esteem. The tombs seemed to watch the hills, bowing their heads to express their loyalty. Teachers Gao read that we should recognize our inner thoughts. Looking at these mountains on which I seemed to step, I felt very insignificant in comparison.

Later at the “Culture Night” performance, I finally met my original group’s members. The first words we chose were the same – “miss you,” – even though we all had the whole day harvested, so we reached agreement to binge .We were shouting in a strange voice in Chinese “gambay,” and called the Indian name of Dubey, who was always a little behind, and then laughed at it all.

What was under the stars was our laughter all the way. The cold wind of deep autumn could not freeze our hot-blooded young hearts! At this moment, we finally realized that language could not become any threat to communication, nor could skin color hinder the development of emotional ties.

In the early morning of the next day, many went back to Seoul. I looked seriously at every one of our group: dear sister So-hyun, senior student in CNU Kyeong Ho, married Shilpa, brother Soo Young, and so many other members. Maybe you won’t see this, but I will always keep in my mind this very short but very precious period of my life, with you, my precious new friends.

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