The Paradox of Cultural Diversity: The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Statism

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), adopted by the UNESCO in 2003, extends the existing scope of cultural heritage protected by the UNESCO. That is, the 2003 ICH Convention placed new value on cultural diversity as from the previous scope which focused on outstanding universal value. While the criteria for nomination as a world cultural heritage in the past had been elitist and Eurocentric, concentrating on monumentality, the 2003 ICH Convention recognized the value of the living traditions of the community which had so far remained in the peripheries. However, although the ICH Convention asserts itself as presenting a new paradigm which transcends territorial boundaries in the sense that intangible culture is tied to communities or groups which may not be defined by national borders, territorial concepts still remain intact in the implementation of the Convention. The competitive registration of intangible cultural heritage by Korea, China, and Japan to gain exclusive ownership of cultures and the conflicts born from this process well illustrate this limitation of the ICH Convention.