Arirang song as a mean of problem solving in social division circumstances of South Korea on production and consumption side

Title

Arirang song as a mean of problem solving in social division circumstances of South Korea on production and consumption side

1. Introduction

To begin with, Intangible Cultural Heritage(ICH) is distinguished as Representative List and Safeguarding List. One of the Representative List in ROK is Arirang folk song.

As it transfers from national to international list, the song contributes to construction of peace between different stakeholders in South Korea in a conflict situation, particularly in social dogma and class division situation.

The scopes of conflict include socio-economical, inter-provincial, and bureaucracy-originated. Those three constituents are all relation-oriented. In Korea, legacy of prior caste system in Joseon period had been abolished in law. However, still social division and discriminations are pervasive.

Within each divided Korea, Arirang consists of about 3600 various versions based on different regions in Korea. It is a symbol of cultural diversity.

Then does the song contribute to problem solving solutions in social division situations in South Korea?

The history of ICH field is relatively short comparing other cultural fields. Since the ICH convention in 2003 initiated by UNESCO, articles regarding ICH actively started to be published. In this writing, I have adopted 2003 convention, listed heritage, and community. When considering community hasn’t been defined in the convention of UNESCO, what kind of individual would be included and excluded is need to be considered in a community-based approach.

2. Existing studies

In ICH field, recent studies are focused on influence of ratification among six groups of countries and possibility of interdisciplinary study with other fields. In the definition of UNESCO, ICH is an inclusive concept as it means knowledge, oral tradition, music, language, etc. Intangibility of heritage is recent paradigm and it has meta cultural nature. It goes beyond cultures of community and UNESCO heritage ist is for humanity. But in the international list, emphasis on “Exceptional value” has been criticized because practices in danger are much more urgent.

Other than urgency, Although its history as an academic field is short, the history of Heritage itself is so long as it even went back to birth of human. As “living heritage”, up till the present day, Arirang has undergone continuous change passing through different generations.

The song is inclusive, divergent, and performative. Anyone can participate in the improvisation of it. The value of Arirang lies in the inclusiveness of different categories of identity. Different levels of stakeholders; individuals, the ruling class, and the nation used Arirang for the reproduction of identity. Particularly, the song was a critical tool for the subject who seek inter-subject exchange and diversity.

Among literatures on heritage production, Jung-shim, O. (2021), Yulong, Chen. (2020) and Jeong, S. (2019) are the selected one to answer my question. Registering heritage in the list of UNESCO is the production on institutional system.

Designation is the process of acquiring status under the system of international organization. Among countries which ratified the convention, South Korea articulated debate regarding production side by registering many heritages and researching it.

Contrary with this, the literature discussing questions concerning heritage consumption is Bak, S., Min, C. K., & Roh, T. S. (2019) and Seonwoo, Kim. (2020). The linkage of these literatures are impacts of enlisting on individual tourists and practitioners. By using a comparative perspective between production and consumption, it is possible to examining Arirang song as a mean of problem solving solution in Korea society.

On consumption of heritage side, according to Sang mee Bak et al. (2019), tourists who have don’t have condition to travel cannot contribute to increasing in heritage tourism. In the literature, the status of individuals was quantified as intervening and control variables.

Control variables include tourists’ health, education level, and urban or rural area where they live in. In the 72 countries which ratified 2003 convention, inscription of heritage affected positively to enlargement of heritage tourism. In the study of Seong-mi Jeong (2019), the author shows class system of earlier periods in South Korea remained a legacy in detail of tangible and intangible heritage.

Tangible craft items used in ritual and skill making of it both correlated to individuals’ status. Particularly marriage ritual in Wanju rural area in South Korea was used as a case study. Since the liberation of Korea, Tangible Heritage and ICH weren’t fully transferred to the young generation.

According to the author, Individuals need to participate in co-curating with older generations and understand the relationships between TH and ICH. What is promoted is the sustainability of heritage.

On the production side, Oh Jung-shim (2021) inspected research trends and keywords in cultural heritage and anthropology fields. When considering the quantified method is relatively rare in the field, this article using quantitative data helps understand the network of articles from international cultural heritage- related journals.

Among analyzed keyword, the most frequent word was ‘community’, ’practice’, and ’culture’. The new keyword ‘safeguarding’ was added to the existing analyzed keyword. Particularly, in the safeguarding process of practice, a community-oriented approach is crucial.

The rising importance of safeguarding is reflected in the analysis of the trend. Safeguarding means a more active process with an aim for preservation than the word ‘preservation’ which was used before.

Not only individuals and communities but also the country as a bigger stakeholder employ heritage as a source of power. According to the descriptive analysis of Chen et al. (2020), heritage is the soft power of the country, and it is a part of a nation’s identity. Authors descriptively analyze research trends in each region, Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Specifically, Asia is focused on the protection side. But Scholars in other areas are more focused on critical combinations with other fields. This resulted in new discourse and the trend is called Critical Heritage Discourse.

Among popularly cited researchers and institutions, Korean is not included. According to the author, the ICH research is unstructured. What this research promote is the construction of related studies.

As instruments of convention, music constitutes key part in heritage studies. As the most popular song in Korea, enjoyment of Arirang in sub-culture was depicted by Seonwoo Kim (2020). In ROK, Currently 36 versions of Arirang are known. The subcultural version contrast with Nationalistic version. In colonial period of Korea, nationalistic version was counter culture resisting Japan.

Under legacy of imperialism, individuals expressed their emotion through song. Arirang also served as national symbol for struggle.

Bonzo version is representative mass culture of nation. Mainly, there are four types of Arirang; Jeongseon, Jindo, Milyang, Bonzo. In case of the Milling Arirang, ‘the song demonstrates the characteristics of people from Yeongnam region. Heterogeneous local identity and national identity transferred into International lists as instruments of the Convention.

For production of pan-national(all inclusive) identity, subcultural characteristic of Arirang need to be considered in self staging of mass culture. In Marx’s term the class struggle, one of the form of it is in ideological. The mean of cultural production controlled by cultural elites in institution. Civil people struggled with inability of accessing cultural means but in case of Arirang it provided means to local communities to be connected with national and international institution.

Because the song provide means of expression to civil people, it contribute as problem solving solution in social division situations of South Korea. ICH nomination affects to increase of tourism, so it also brings economical benefit, and it is helpful.

The current state of knowledge can be divided into producing lists and consuming already listed ones. What I have found is the importance of safeguarding as a process-oriented approach across all generations.

In conflict circumstances that originated from imperialism and capitalism, Representative list particularly Arirang songs appropriated in popular songs, classic song performances, and commemorative events. In this regard, the young generation of individuals on the consumption side and the young practitioners can coexist and contribute to sustainability in conflict situations through changes.

Representativeness of all classes, particularly minority people adds a diverse layer to authenticity. Respect and coexistence of diversity within society bring peace. From these findings, I can answer that in case of ICH is safeguarded properly contribute to solving the conflict situation in Korea. Then even though ICH has many possibilities, why there are not many young practitioners who wanted to be cultural bearers or living human treasures?

Does the age gap in cultural bearers result in social division situations in South Korea? The word ‘treasure’ seems patrimonial and that seems to be a reason for its low popularity. But for sustainability in future generations, more interest from the younger generation would be requisite.

References

Bak, S., Min, C. K., & Roh, T. S. (2019). Impacts of UNESCO-listed tangible and intangible heritages on tourism. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(8), 917-927. h t t p s : / / doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2019.1658034

Jeong, S. (2019). (Co-) curating the rural traditions and material culture of villages: a case study in Wanju, Korea. International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 14, 173-185. DOI : 10.35638/ijih.2019..14.010

Jung-shim, O. (2021). Research flows and results of studies on intangible cultural heritage: A network analysis of articles in related international journals, 2002–2020. The International Journal of Intangible Heritage, 16, 18-29. DOI : 10.35638/ijih.2021..16.004

Seonwoo, Kim. (2020). The Subcultural Characteristics and Consumption Forms of Arirang — With a focus on its history from the Enlightenment period to colonial period — . THE JOURNAL OF MODERN LITERARY THEORY, 81, 31-57. https://kiss.kstudy.com/thesis/ thesis-view.asp?key=3790701

Yulong, Chen. (2020). The academics of Intangible Cultural Heritage-knowledge map analysis based on CiteSpace (2003-2019) DOI : 10.35638/ijih.2020..15.012

Writer: © DahaKim 김다하