The Role of Heritage as a Policy Instrument Within a Certain Society

Korea’s cultural policy has been started to be designed and implemented by the various governments since the Third Republic. Each government had devised its cultural policy and methods, according to its own concepts of culture, economic system, and other political ideology. However, the cultural policy had confronted problems with various perspective such as administrative and financial issues, just as the difficulties that other national policies are facing towards. Eventually, Korean government has successfully achieved its cultural aim within its limited budget. One of the examples is the implementing the cultural heritage into forming the economic and political background of Korea.

The role of the state in cultural development, particularly on the ways institutional practices of cultural policy have contributed to the reconstruction of Korea’s national culture and economy since the first military regime of Park Chunghee. However, it was only until the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. The government of South Korea’s first republic had attempted to reposition ‘culture’ as a tool to recover the nation’s identity after Japanese colonization and Korean War’s devastation. The state was instrumental in forming the national cultural movement for modernization: The New Community Movement was contributed by the citizens to promote the national sport Taekwondo internationally. The cultural policy of this period brought the big influencing on forming the South Korean developmental state project.

I also agree to a certain extent that heritage allows people to identify themselves in a community via their own roots, culture is one of the driving factors for constructing identity and a sense of belonging. Without heritage, people are unable to relate themselves to a community, and differentiating between “us” and “them”. People depend on each other in the community, and they work together for a common goal. By working together as one community, they try their best to improve the social cohesiveness. However, in modern societies, cultural heritage is slowly losing its effect on people. People became more individualistic and they are more money oriented that they often work for the benefits and profits. Those factors have contributed to making a community, based on economic and political reasons.

In Yim Tin Tsai, the Hakka villagers are the only remaining inhabitants in the village. In the 1800s, when the missionaries came to the little island, they baptized the residents of Yim Tin Tsai. They built a school and a chapel for the villagers. However, the population dwindled as the time passed. Everything closed down and Yim Tin Tsai became isolated in 1998 after the last Chan left the island. In the 2000s, the younger generations of the Chan family came over to their island, Yim Tin Tsai again and started to work on conversation on cultural heritages in the village. Eventually the conservation has brought the village a big success, and also became famous for the UNESCO heritage site. In another word, the island has become a living museum for an older way of life. With their own culture originated from Hakka community, and their religion, the traditional way that the villagers utilize the revived salt pans.