Baek Chung-kang

Baek Chung-kang always wanted to be a singer, not in China, where he was born and grew up, but in Korea, the homeland of his parents and grandparents. On Friday his dream came true when he won MBC's "Star Audition" at a gymnasium at Korea University.

He also won a W300 million (US$1=W1,084) cash prize and a luxury car.

Beak went to middle school in Tumen, Yanbian, and took musical classes at a contemporary music institute. His singing skills stood out from early on as he won Yanbian TV's youth singing competition and other singing contests in the province. When he was nine, his parents went to Korea without him to make money. "I started singing to forget about the loneliness and longing for my parents," he recalls. "I dreamed of becoming a singer in Korea while performing in clubs in Yanbian."

The chance to realize his dream finally came in January when he took part in the preliminaries for "Star Audition" in Qingdao. "It took me 36 hours to get here from Yanbian," he said then. "I want to become a singer in Korea." For the final round he came to Korea for the first time, and was reunited with his mother and father, who work in a car parts company.

Throughout the months of the reality show his story made headlines in the Yanbian press, and Baek kept telling fellow Korean Chinese there never to give up on their dreams.