Essay Contest Result

As is well known, cultural heritage is a legacy bequeathed to mankind by history and contains the rich cultural content of a country or people. As such, it is an important window for foreigners to understand a country. I also got to know Korea in a comprehensive and three-dimensional way through its cultural heritage.

1. The Beginning of My Interest: Controversy over News

In 2008, the news of successful listing of Korea's Dano Festival as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity heated up the Internet. At the time, media reports said that South Korea had won the competition with China over the listing of Dano Festival. There were rumors that if South Korea won, China would lose the rights to the festival and Qu Yuan, a poet and politician of the ancient Chu state of China would be regarded as a Korean. Although many experts and scholars have since said that China's Dragon Boat Festival and Korea's Danoje Festival of Gangneung are not the same, some still view that Korea stole Dano Festival from China. The listing of South Korea's Dano Festival has started a domino effect, leading to a series of false reports.

In fact, in the internet world where there is no real gunfire, disputes and controversies inevitably make people's perceptions of things generalized and subjective. However, such controversies helped raise foreigners’ interest in and recognition of Korean cultural heritage.

For example, the successful listing of seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian academies, in 2019 sparked fresh debate online between seowon in China and Korea. At the time when I first got the news, my perception of Korea was limited to kimchi and fried chicken, so I just wondered, “Didn't seowon flourish during the Song Dynasty in China? Why did UNESCO choose the Korean seowon over the Chinese seowon?” These questions sparked my curiosity and interest in Korean cultural heritage.

2. Recognition and Acceptance: Providing Information through Official Cultural Heritage Website

If you search for the keyword “Korean cultural heritages” on the Internet, the website of the Korea Heritage Service (https://www.khs.go.kr) comes up first. The official government website promotes Korean cultural heritage internally and externally by supporting four languages: Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese. On the Chinese-language website, visitors can quickly and easily get detailed information about Korean heritage, such as listing years, photos taken on site, and heritage introductions. The website not only introduces specific heritage sites, but also provides knowledge about heritage protection. Pictured below is the Science Dissemination Module for Heritage Protection.

Searching for information on the website of the Korea Heritage Service, I realized that seowon in Korea, one of the World Heritage Sites, were built between the mid-16th and 17th centuries and there are nine seowon, including Sosuseowon, Namgyeseowon, and Oksanseowon Confucian Academies. They represent the educational institutions of neo-Confucianism during the Joseon Dynasty. The seowon are an excellent evidence of the cultural tradition related to Korean Neo-Confucianism. As the website states, “The seowon illustrate an historical process in which Neo-Confucianism from China was tailored to Korean local conditions resulting in academies which are exceptional testimony of this transformative and localizing process in terms of function, layout, and architecture.” This is especially true in that Korean seowon have great archival value in showing the process of localization of Neo-Confucianism.

From the website which is practical, I realized that it was no coincidence that seowon in Korea were listed as a World Heritage Site. I think that it was possible not only because of the importance of the cultural value of Neo-Confucianism, but also because of the long-standing efforts of the government and people of Korea to preserve the heritage.

3. Thought and Exploration: Cultural Heritage Books and Articles

The words “exceptional testimony” generated my curiosity, and the term “Korean seowon” and a few photos led me to dig deeper, and I was eager to learn more about Korea. As information on websites is always limited, books and academic papers are essential for a deeper understanding of a subject. So I searched for papers and books on history and culture using the keywords “Korean seowon” and “Neo-Confucianism.” At the same time, I systematically explored the internal and external factors that led to the listing of Korean seowon so as to get more than superficial knowledge.

Academic research on Korean seowon is abundant. It opens the door to a new world from the architecture of gardens, to the history of seowon, to seowon education, to the localization of Confucianism, to the succession and revitalization of culture. Korean seowon are not just four letters on a piece of paper, but like a 3D building that appears before your eyes, show the ancient people walking through the front door, reading books in the library, and having heated discussions in the yard. Time passes in the blink of an eye, and Confucian thoughts are passed down from generation to generation and undergo evolution. The Joseon Dynasty was not a vassal state as some have known it, but a dynasty with a vibrant East Asian culture and a distinctive seowon culture. Based on the seowon, the image of Korea has changed from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and we can see great scholars such as Ryu Seong-ryong giving lectures, witness the turmoil of the factional strife of the late seowon period, and see how modern people maintained and protected seowon and utilized resources.

4. Transmission and Practice: Projects to Revitalize Utilization of Cultural Heritages

Of course, the awareness of cultural heritage should not only focus on the historical context, but also on the transmission and revitalization of contemporary culture. Each of the nine seowon in Korea that are listed as World Heritage Sites has its own unique value and charm, and they are being utilized in a variety of ways, enabling not only protection and transmission of cultural heritage but also development of tourism. Sosuseowon Confucian Academy has organized a study program for elementary, middle, and high school students, which enhances their understanding of seowon culture in three stages: understanding seowon, field trips, summarizing learning contents and exhibiting learning results. In addition, Korean seowon are trying to promote Korean culture by conducting comprehensive activities such as attracting foreign tourists interested in 'hallyu culture' and providing them with the opportunity to experience seowon. Various experience events such as making Korean food, wearing a seonbi costume, and experiencing a wedding ceremony provide foreign tourists with opportunities to experience Korean culture based on seowon. The one-day Confucian culture experience tour of Dosanseowon Confucian Academy, Confucius Village, Byeongsanseowon Confucian Academy, and Hahoe Village in the Andong area allows foreign tourists to experience the inner parts of the common Confucian culture in different settings. Virtual reality technology is also utilized to help foreign visitors understand the seowon culture more vividly. It allows them to see at a glance how the late scholar Yi Hwang taught his disciples and how the seonbi scholars studied and lived.

Seowon in Korea is a cultural heritage that is passed down through the interaction of people and culture along with their architecture. Seowon culture, if history and technology are combined for their diverse and creative use, can be recognized as a shining part of Korean culture. I believe it is good to try to t better understand Korea through its cultural heritage. Once making the initial contact, one can try to gain a deeper understanding of Korean culture through various methods, such as field trips to cultural heritage that is known both domestically and internationally. Korea's cultural heritage encourage foreigners to turn from passive acceptance to active exploration, draw them into Korean history, explore heritage sites, and experience the charm of Korean culture.