The Review of the Theories of Intangible Heritage with Its Paradigm Shift - The Value of Intangible Heritage that Does Not Take a Physical Form -

Across the world, the conservation and management in cultural heritage have gainedunprecedented attentions. Since the Industrial Evolution and the reconstruction of Europeancities after World Wars, the conservation of heritage has been biased to tangible heritagesolely. Nonetheless, in 2003, UNESCO have ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding ofthe Intangible Cultural Heritage with the recognition to the significance of intangible heritage.The prevailed approaches and tools in the heritage arena, however, have struggled in applyingto the intangible heritage due to the differentiations of them. For example, it was requiredto different approaches in order to protect artisans and to maintain historic architectures.However, they applied to the similar types of approaches to the intangible heritage field too.Without the understanding of them, freezing intangible heritage into documents and archiveshave raised incessant arguments.Indeed, UNESCO has developed to conserve both tangible and intangible heritage in diversedimensions, undoubtedly. Nonetheless, even in UNESCO and other renowned internationalorganizations, their perceptions imply a firm dichotomyheritage and intangible heritage.While they embrace tangible heritage as the representative of the whole, they demarcateintangible heritage as a different type. If they regard intangible heritage as the same status withthe tangible heritage, the dichotomy has to be modified as tangible and intangible heritageunder the integrated heritage arena. It means that the perceptions towards intangible heritagein Western Hemispheres have not aligned with those of Asian countries.Recently, there is a movement to reconcile the tensions between tangible and intangibleheritage while admitting their differences. UNESCO also has paid attention to the paradigmshift, and they have changed the OUV (Outstanding Universal Value) criteria to the certain listedWorld Heritage sites in giving weight to intangible values of them. The shifted approaches arepartly shown that the significance of intangible heritage and its associated values are adopted as important as tangible heritage which was prevailed in the past few decades across theworld. The theory and practice of intangible heritage that were aroused from Korea and Japanin the 1950\textasciitilde60s can be alternative ways against the current tensions between tangible andintangible heritage while embracing the appreciation towards intangible values. Thus, the studyinvestigates the history and theory of intangible heritage in the globe with its evolvements andanalyzes the paradigm shift so that South Korea envisions its stature in the heritage arena inthe near future.