By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
There are several blogs and online forums run by foreigners in South Korea, where they try to provide information and exchange views on their chosen place of expatriate living. But it is rare that such activities bear a collective offline fruit.
``Korea Up Close: Photographic Encounters by Foreign Observers'' (Compiled by Craig White; Seoul Selection: 188 pp., 13,000 won) could be called such a rare occasion. The book is the first product borne out of Galbijim book projects underway at the Web site www.galbijim.com, a kind of aspiring online Wikipedia in English on everything related to Korea.
The book, published in April here, is a compilation of short essays and photos of expatriates from English-speaking countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia.
Some of them have lived here enough for Korean culture to grow upon them. American writer Mary Crowe, for example, recalls in her piece on Korean cuisine titled ``Mary Eats'' on the day of a chilling awakening: ``The day I wandered past a kimchi counter in E-mart and found myself salivating, I stopped in cold sweat. I had gone native.''
The pieces in the book focus on capturing diverse aspects of South Korea in words and images, which can provide newcomers and those who are interested with introductory glimpses into the nation's culture and everyday life.