Sung-bong Choi is the Korean Susan Boyle

Sung-bong Choi is a twenty-two-year-old manual laborer from South Korea who was orphaned at the age of three, and subsequently fled the orphanage when he was five, after sadly suffering physical abuse. He spent the next decade living a hardscrabble, hand-to-mouth existence, peddling gum and energy drinks in the street like a Dickensian waif. (I know, Red Bull wasn't around in Dickens' time. You know what I'm saying.) He had no family and slept wherever he could find shelter.

Susan Boyle may not be a beauty queen, but she doesn't have a background like Choi either. Choi modestly says he's not a good singer, that it's just something he likes. When he opens his mouth and sings Sarah Brightman's "Nella Fantasia" on Korea's Got Talent, that modesty becomes apparent. In this age of snark and irony, we need all the inspirational underdog stories we can get. Get those hankies ready.