The Boon of Korea's Twentieth-Century Books
Document Type
Article
Source
Korean Heritage: Quarterly Magazine of the Cultural Heritage Administration
Publication Date
Spring 2013
Volume
66
Issue
1
First Page
32
Last Page
37
Abstract
Efforts to preserve Korea's fiercely won cultural achievements of the last century advanced considerably in early 2011 when a seminal twentiethcentury Korean literary text was registered as a “cultural asset” by the South Korean government. By recognizing Kim So-wŏl's Chindallaekkot (Azaleas), the government helped secure a place for Kim's canonical poems in narratives about what it meant to be Korean during the last century. This act also helped to promote awareness of how literary works by early twentieth-century Korean authors continue to shape Korean identity. But the real advances in cultural conservation achieved by the government stem from the unexpected way in which the registration of Azaleas as a cultural asset shone an entirely new light on the textual record of early twentieth-century Korea and the physicality of its printed materials, revealing new avenues of research that portend a significantly deeper understanding of cultural life on the Korean peninsula.