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In response to China's claim that nongak is their culture, the cyber diplomatic mission BANK has launched a global petition through social media and other social media platforms.
'If anything is listed on UNESCO first, is it Chinese?'
Vank, who made the poster in Korean and English, is urging people to join the petition with the content that "Korean nongak is Chinese nongak dance? Nongak is always Korean traditional culture."
(Bank Global Petition address bridgeasia.net) The global petition provides an explanation of Nongak and how China registered 'Nongakmu' on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Nongak is music performed by marching and pannoleum played with percussion, and is a representative performing art of Korea and an intangible cultural heritage of Korea that has been handed down for a long time.
However, in 2009, China registered it on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity 5 years earlier than Korea under the name of 'Nongakmu of the Koreans'.
China claims that nongak is an intangible cultural heritage of the Korean-Chinese, and that it belongs to China because it was first registered with UNESCO.
However, Vank refutes, saying, "The claim that Korean-Chinese culture is part of Chinese culture is an absurd and unreasonable claim," and "China's tyranny trying to rob Korea's cultural heritage to realize cultural imperialism."
In particular, Vank argues that the name Korean-Chinese itself is a new name created in 1956 by the Chinese government to control ethnic minorities in China and to manage them.
In other words, Korean-Chinese is not an actual ethnic minority, but merely a name created for administrative management in China.
Park Ki-tae, president of BANK, said, "China does not give up its ambition to incorporate Korean culture into Chinese culture under the pretext that it is Korean-Chinese culture, despite the opposition from Korea. It's because of the 'fair' project."
(Photo=provided by VANK, Yonhap News)