The Newsletter 93 Autumn 2022

Narratives of Tangible and Intangible Heritage in Northeast Asia

Ilhong Ko

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003 was a pivotal point for traditions and customs around the world in terms of their recognition, status, value, preservation, and promotion. However, this convention, which followed the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972, has arguably led to an almost black-and-white understanding of heritage being either tangible or intangible.

This approach is problematic because heritage, whether designated under “tangible” or “intangible,” comprises both aspects when it comes to validation, preservation, and promotion. All tangible heritage sites have intangible stories and messages that are key to their “Outstanding Universal Value.” 1 For an overview of “Outstanding Universal Value”, as defined by UNESCO, see https://whc.unesco.org/en/compendium/action=list&id_faq_themes=962.  When it comes to the validation of intangible heritage, despite the emphasis on act and practice, there is also a strong reliance on tangible evidence and associated objects.

This edition of News from Northeast Asia looks into the narratives of tangible and intangible heritage in Northeast Asia. In “China and Its Changing Narratives of Nationhood and Heritage,” Susan Whitfield of the University of East Anglia traces China’s changing narratives of its “minority” heritages, both tangible and intangible, which are meant to be consumed internally (by the citizens of the People’s Republic of China) as well as externally (by the international community). However, not all heritage narratives are intended for the global stage, as Liliana Janik of the University of Cambridge illustrates in “Best Kept Secret, Jomon Heritage of Contemporary Japan.” That the tangible and intangible elements of heritage are intertwined and mutually important is demonstrated in “The Tangible Validation, Preservation, and Promotion of South Korea’s Oral Tradition Pansori in The Gochang Pansori Museum” by Seoul National University Asia Center’s Minjae Zoh. The way in which the tangible plays a central role in reproducing the intangible is also addressed by Emilie Jean Green from the University of Aberdeen, who touches upon how the physical gathering of people (which cannot take place in an online form) is crucial to practicing, maintaining, and transmitting the cultural knowledge associated with intangible heritage in “The Return of Naadam: A Celebration of Intangible Heritage in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

 

Ilhong Ko, HK Research Professor, Seoul National University Asia Center. Email: mahari95@snu.ac.kr