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The Tangible Validation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Museums: The Gochang Pansori Museum, South Korea

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2024, 81(1), pp.273-298
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.81.1.202402.273
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : January 16, 2024
  • Accepted : February 6, 2024
  • Published : February 28, 2024

Minjae Zoh 1

1서울대학교 아시아연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention’s categorisation of heritage as ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ via their separate conventions in 1972 and 2003 respectively has arguably cemented a rather ‘black and white’ understanding and approach of heritage as either tangible or intangible. However, when it comes to valorising, registering, or exhibiting national and/or heritage in museum spaces, the intangible requires the tangible and vice versa. In other words, the tangible needs the intangible theories and stories, and the intangible needs the tangible validation of its tradition. This article examines the contents and display methods of the Gochang Pansori Museum in South Korea, a museum dedicated to the preservation and commemoration of South Korea’s oral tradition called Pansori. Pansori was officially inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2003). Before this, in 2001, the Gochang Pansori Museum was established on the grounds of the old residence of the patron of Pansori, Shin Jae Hyo, to preserve and promote the oral tradition as well as to validate its history. The museum contains over 1,000 pieces related to Pansori and various tangible methods have been implemented to provide the visitors with a Pansori experience as well as to visually and tangibly validate its tradition and history. This article looks into the importance of the tangible space, objects, and display methods in exhibiting and validating the oral tradition through the Gochang Pansori Museum. The core aim is to emphasise how the value and validation of intangible cultural heritage are dependent and heightened by tangible evidence and documentation.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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