[KS] northeast asia project-UNESCO heritage sites

[Hyung Pai]

Dear Mr. Lee and members,
I also want to emphasize the importance of taking into account the 
impact of cultural tourism and the PRC's economic motivation for 
pushing the registration of these Koguryo tombs on the prestigious list 
of World Heritage Sites. In the last report (2001) that I have from the 
UNESCO World Heritage Organization, there are more than 500 historical 
sites/natural monuments worldwide and over 150 countries who are 
members. S. Korea joined in 1998 and now has six monuments registered 
including Sokkuram, Pulguksa, Haeinsa woodblock prints, Suwon Hwasong 
fortress, Chongmyo, and most recently, Hwasun dolmen sites in 
Cholla-do. I have  kept up with the various symposiums sponsored by 
bureaucrats, historians, and archaeologists who spent many years of 
intense lobbying to list these dolmen sites as a unique 'Korean" 
prehistoric heritage from the Bronze Age citing the usual nationalistic 
propaganda about their significance as the first remains as evidence of 
social stratification, state formation, and ancestral architectural 
achievements.
So, for your forum, I recommend that you contact the Seoul Unesco 
Office and esp, the assistant director Ho-Kwon who will be able to 
direct you to the kinds of publications, activities, monitoring of 
sites, and administrative funding the World heritage sites commission 
offers. My impression reading through the minutes of international 
symposiums they hold every five years as well as talking to ICOM 
(International Council on Museums) and ICOMOS (International Council on 
Monuments) members in South Korea that being on the list is a highly 
competitive process requiring documentation to prove historical 
authenticity, that the materials/technology used at the sites are still 
original, the preservation state of the monument is worthy of salvaging 
and most importantly, its historical "representativity" as a national 
symbol.
These are the prime reasons why, the PRC is so intent in assert ing 
their authority so as to claim them as 'their national sites" since 
they want to have a monopoly over the tombs preservation, 
reconstruction (which goes on today at a breakneck speed) and future 
development for tourism and commercial revenue. Mark Byington has also 
pointed out to me the irony of this situation since South Korean 
tourists and no doubt Japanese tourists (Who together have the most 
dispensable income to throw around) will comprise the majority of 
potential visitors who will spend the money and effort to go to these 
sites situated outside the main  tourists venues in Beijing and 
Shanghai. It is unfortunate and in my opinion a glaring omission on the 
part of the various organizers that most of the international 
symposiums and hundreds of articles in Korean/Japanese newspapers 
published in the last six months demonstrate again how the 
"ethno-centric" bias on the part of Korean academics have influenced 
their debates over the sites "ethnic/artistic origins" rather than the 
more immediate concerns  over condemning the destruction of these sites 
in the rushed excavations and reconstruction projects without adequate 
research planning or published excavation reports.
I hope in your forum being held in Berkeley will have a more open 
debates on the larger global issues facing cultural sites and monuments 
rather than rehashing the same nationalistic tropes which leads nowhere 
since this debate first surfaced amongst N. Korean scholars and Chinese 
officials  decades ago.


On Mar 31, 2004, at 9:38 PM, ken.kaliher at us.army.mil wrote:

>
>    Anthony Faiola’s thorough January 22 report in the Washington Post 
> ("Kicking Up the Dust of History") suggested one possible reason for 
> China’s Koguryo claims which seems very far from “silly.”  Faiola 
> wrote:
>
>    “...More is at stake than bragging rights to the extraordinary 
> bronze and clay Buddhas and frescoed murals of a long-dead 
> civilization.  Koguryo encompassed a vast area from central Manchuria 
> to south of Seoul.  Korean academics and politicians accuse China  of 
> attempting to lay claim to the kingdom out of fear that its 
> 870-mile-long border with North Korea will rupture with a flood of 
> refugees if the government in Pyongyang collapses. 
>
>     “The Chinese may be laying the groundwork to dispute the current 
> border with North Korea and, if they find it to be in their interest, 
> claim more territory, scholars say.  They also argue that China is 
> trying to head off any attempt by pockets of Korean speakers on the 
> Chinese side of the border from eventually becoming part of a unified  
> Korea.”
>
>  
>
> Ken Kaliher
> Seoul
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Address: PSC 303, Box 40, APO AP 96204-0040
>  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Phone: -82-11-9652-3192 (011- in Korea)
> Back-up E-mail (NO attachments): kenkaliher at hotmail.com
>  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> If Martha Stewart had just lied about weapons of mass destruction, 
> she’d be a free woman today.
> -- Jay Leno
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: Jim Palais <palais at u.washington.edu>
>
>  Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 6:29 pm
>
>  Subject: Re: [KS] northeast asia project
>
>  > Peter Lee:
> > It seems like the Chinese government is being overly
> > nationalistic. I
> > can't think of any other reason for making a silly claim for Chinese
>  > jurisdiction of Koguryo.
>  > Jim Palais
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Sangkee Peter Lee" <sangkee at uclink.berkeley.edu>
>  > To: <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>  > Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 3:43 PM
> > Subject: [KS] northeast asia project
>  >
> >
> > > To whom it may concern:
> > >
> > > My name is Peter Lee and I'm a 2nd year political science
> > student at UC
> > Berkeley. I'm part of a
>  > > student organization called Committee for Korea Studies. 5-6
> > students have
> > been meeting about
> > > everyday for 2 weeks to learn more about the Northeast Asia
> > Project- the
> > history of goguryo and
>  > > the reason why Chinese govt is pursuing this. We decided the
>  > best way to
> > > inform the students here at Berkeley is to hold a forum where 3-4
> > professors or experts can
> > > lecture and answer questions. Do you have any recommendations? 
> Those
> > living in the US will be most
> > > ideal, but if they live in Korea it will be okay also. Thank
>  > you. I'll
> > look forward to hearing
> > > from
> > > you soon.
> > >
> > > Peter
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
Hyung Il Pai
Associate Professor
East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies,
HSSB Building, University of California, Santa Barbara CA 93106
Fax: 805) 893-3011, Phone: 805) 893-2245
Email: Hyungpai at eastasian.ucsb.edu
Dept. Web-site -http://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu/
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