New Human Cultural Assets Selected

On August 22, the Cultural Properties Administration (CPA) appointed a new batch of people as human cultural assets.

Two people from Jinju Samchun Agricultural Music and Pyungtaek Agricultural Music divisions, sub-divisions of the performing arts, and 3 people from Hansan Ramie Fabric Weaving and Wood Cutting Art divisions, sub-divisions of the art crafts division. The CPA has already appointed Kim Dae-kyun, the number 58 tightrope dancer, and 22 other people from 10 different divisions as human assests last month.

The number of newly selected human assests is double the number last year. The government is appointing more and more people as national human assets in a hope that it will help preserving the traditional performing arts, which are in danger of extinction.

Up to this time, many traditional artists were excluded from the human assets selection process due to the principle that an asset had to be over 50 years old. As a result, there were many cases in which old artists, who were too old to teach and hand down their skills, were appointed as human assets. The CPA has decided to ignore the age limit and apply a 1 person per 1 sub-division principle in appointing human assets.

by Park So-young