Li Zizi, a girl from Class 3, Grade 1 in Chengdu Experimental Foreign Language School, has been invited to attend President-elect Obama's inauguration on January 20, 2009 as part of a delegation of global high school students. [Chengdu Evening News]

Li Zizi from Chengdu Experimental Foreign Language School has been invited by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council under the US Congress to attend Barack Obama's inauguration as US President on January 20, 2009.

Li was chosen because of her outstanding performance at the Congressional Youth Leadership Council held in Washington, D.C. and New York last August.

Li Zizi's mother said Li had battled tough competition to get to the global final in America. She had to deliver speeches on politics, the economy, environmental protection, finance, and world peace. The young student made a big impression and was therefore invited by the Council to attend the inauguration.

Around 200 high school students from all over the world have been invited to attend Obama's inauguration. "I'm very lucky to be attending the inauguration. It was all so unexpected," said Li Zizi.

Li will fly to America on January 15 and is preparing for her trip by studying American history, customs, and reviewing the presidential campaign. She says she hopes the "world will notice the presence of a student from Chengdu."

Her invitation letter sets out a busy schedule that includes meeting deputies of the US Congress, debates with the other high school students, lectures on American history and disco dancing.

Pu Wei, Li's teacher, said Li Zizi was born in Japan of Chinese parents. Her mother, born in Chengdu, is now a teacher of educational psychology in a Japanese college.

Li Zizi returned to Chengdu to study in the second half of this 2008. She was in Japan at the time of the May 12 earthquake, later worked as a volunteer in Dujiangyan and Wolong. "I was really impressed by what I saw – especially by the students continuing their studies in makeshift schools. I think Chengdu people are fantastic."

At present, Li Zizi is living with her grandmother in Chengdu. According to her mother, Li learned Japanese in school, but at home they used Chengdu dialect. "Although I grew up at abroad, I have always been attached to Chengdu," Li Zizi said, "If people introduce me as Japanese, I correct them and say I'm a Chinese girl from Chengdu."

(China.org.cn by Wang Wei, December 29, 2008)