For Song Joong Ki, “Seeing is Believing”

Certified “umchina” Song Joong Ki is not only busy hosting his new show Made in U on jTBC but also active in helping a project for the visually impaired people. Joong Ki graced Korea Standard Chartered’s event called Good-Hearted Voice Festival at COEX B1 Hall.

According to Richard Hill, the CEO of Korea Standard Chartered Financial Group, they created Seeing is Believing project to help restore the sights of blind people not just in Korea but in a global scope. Under the said project is a campaign called “Read Aloud” where staffs shared their voice talents to create 500 audio and 100 Braille books for visually impaired people for them to enjoy literature. This campaign led to another bigger project, which is what Song Joong Ki is currently endorsing, a “good-hearted” audio campaign called the Good-Hearted Library Project.

The project started with an open audition for people in Korea wherein successful applicants will get a chance to record audio books. According to the organizers, they set up 5 booths last month in the central part of Seoul. 50,000 people came and recorded their voices but only 3,000 were chosen to come for the next round. The next screening, January 14-15 at COEX B1 Hall, will be selecting 500 people but during the final round only 100 applicants will be chosen.

Song Joong Ki may be the host of an audition program on jTBC but when he visited the festival he was the judge. Five individuals were picked in the audience where they had to read a passage from a story. Joong Ki gave his “kind” comments and eventually selected Mrs. Kim, a mom who came to the event with her daughter. According to Joong Ki, Mrs. Kim’s voice projected an aura of a person who reads a lot of books and that her voice has proper tone for storytellers.