Every student who walks through our doors carries a story worth telling. We'd love to help you tell yours.
In 2025, Katie Siu joined CLI in Guilin for a one-year work-study program. Katie had followed our newsletter for years before applying — she was born in Guilin in 1994, adopted at age two by a family in New Jersey, and had always wanted to return to her birth city to learn Chinese.
During her time here, she sat down on camera and told that story.
Katie's video reminded us of something we see every day at CLI but had never put on camera: every student who comes to Guilin has a reason for being here, and those reasons are worth hearing.
What's Your Guilin Story? grew directly out of that idea. Katie helped us launch the project, and her video became the first one we made.
It's now a small, ongoing project at CLI. Each year, we invite a handful of students to create a short video with us — a story about why they came to Guilin, what Chinese means to them, and the particular thread that makes their time here their own.
A simple video-making process, shaped around your story and your pace
You sit down with our video producer, Alex, and our videographer, 小王 Xiaowang, to shape the story: why you came to Guilin, why you're learning Chinese, and what makes your experience here worth filming.
We help with structure, scheduling, locations, interview prompts, and filming so the process stays manageable. The goal is not to make you perform — it's to help your real story come through on camera.
Once the piece is ready, we can share it across CLI's website, YouTube, Instagram, WeChat, and newsletter — always with clear agreement about where it will appear and how it will be presented.
The strongest student videos usually follow one clear emotional thread and let Guilin do the rest
A short first-person video about the decision to come to China, what drew you to Guilin, and what you hoped language study might change.
Follow an ordinary day — class, meals, errands, walks, conversations — and show how daily life in Guilin slowly becomes part of who you are.
Bike to Yangshuo. Climb a hill before sunrise. Visit a market with a purpose. Give the video a simple path so viewers feel they're going somewhere with you.
Tell the story of a moment when the language began to open — a conversation, a class breakthrough, or the first time Guilin started sounding less foreign.
Cooking, climbing, tea, architecture, photography, faith, family history — the most memorable videos often emerge where your own interests meet Guilin.
Sometimes the best video starts with a feeling you can't fully explain yet. That's enough. We can help you find the shape of it.
Tell us a little about yourself and the kind of story you may want to film. No commitment required.
This isn't a commitment — it's just the start of a conversation about your video.
Someone from the CLI team will be in touch soon. In the meantime, keep noticing Guilin — that's where the best video stories begin.
Among the mountains and waters, feeling exists.