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Limitation and Potential of Asian Cultural Cooperation in the 1970s - Korean and Japanese Cultural Policies and Perceptions of Asia Through the ACCU Co-Publication Project -

  • Journal of Humanities
  • 2025, (98), pp.077~120
  • Publisher : Institute for Humanities
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : July 6, 2025
  • Accepted : July 29, 2025
  • Published : August 31, 2025

An Heayun 1

1경상국립대학교 인문학연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to analyze Korea’s and Japan’s perceptions of Asia and cultural diplomacy strategies through the Folk Tales from Asia series published by the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) in the 1970s. The Folk Tales from Asia, a collection of folktales from 18 Asian countries, was ostensibly a universalist project by the ACCU to address the “book famine” in the Asian region and promote cultural solidarity. However, it functioned as a complex arena where Cold War ideological rivalries and the national interests of individual countries were intricately interwoven. The ACCU’s Asian co-publication project, centered on Japan, has hitherto been perceived merely as an international cultural cooperation initiative, thus failing to receive sufficient scholarly scrutiny. This paper analyzes the background of the ACCU’s establishment and UNESCO’s regional strategy for Asia, examining the editorial directions and cultural-political messages embedded in the Korean and Japanese editions of Folk Tales from Asia, based on the premise that Cold War cultural diplomacy operated within the tension between universalist ideals and national interests. Japan utilized the ACCU as a strategic tool to rehabilitate its negative post-war image and secure cultural leadership in the Asian region, thereby revealing a hierarchical perception that positioned itself as a “developed country” while classifying other Asian nations as “developing countries.” In contrast, South Korea, under the Park Chung-hee government’s Yushin (Revitalizing Reform) regime, selected works that accentuated ethnic sentiments and traditional values in alignment with its “national culture” policy. However, South Korea’s deliberate exclusion of works from socialist countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos demonstrated the constraints of Cold War ideology. The ACCU’s co-publication project explored the potential for cultural solidarity among Asian nations while simultaneously exposing the limitations of Cold War frameworks and developmentalist paradigms, thereby representing a cultural practice with inherently dual characteristics.

Citation status

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.