Born near Vancouver and raised in Montréal, Canada, Jonathan Hopfner graduated with a degree in English literature from Dalhousie University in Halifax. He was first lured to South Korea in the late 1990s when he parlayed some early stabs at writing into a position with a newspaper in Seoul, launching a journalism career that has since taken him to Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong. As interesting as all these places were, Jonathan was racked regularly with nostalgia for the rolling mountains, bustling cities, and bold cuisine of South Korea, and in 2008 he jumped at the chance to return to work in his adopted home.

Jonathan works for the Reuters news agency and has contributed articles on culture and travel in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia to publications such as Canada's Globe and Mail, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, and Wallpaper* and DestinAsian magazines.