The Value of Orally Transmitted Heritage and Killer Content for Festivals － Focusing on the Greatness of Arirang, a Korean Folk Song

The inscription of Arirang, a quintessential Korean folk song since 1990s, on the UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity signals its worldwide recognition for a variety of greatness: countless variations handed down throughout Korea, the nature of the refrains and the overall melodies holding the characteristics of their respected region, the distinctive lyrics describing the travails encountered by the subject of the song and the significance as cultural content essential to understanding of the Korea’s oral history and orally transmitted heritage. The achievement has laid an institutional foundation for the preservation and transmission of the folk song, including the constant discovery of and support for regional variations. What’s more, in keeping with the nationwide initiative to promote cultural content in recent years, continued efforts have been made to share and spread the values of Arirang. The popularity of the song that is recognized as both a National and a World’s Important Intangible Cultural asset is now expected to help increase the number of the Arirang festivals.The Arirang Festival still has a long way to go. If the festival is to compete on a level playing field with other regional events, there is a need to transform the way it is organized and performed. The oral literature means the oral culture and plays an integral role in creating local culture. In fact, the cultural festival is required to turn itself into something that combines yesterday and today while focusing on its originality, the biggest contributor to its inscription. In other words, the efforts to transform the current festival should be done in such a way that meets the needs of the participants by consistently seeking the distinctive values of Arirang. Changing the criteria for performance evaluation of the festival and encouraging an active, local participation into the content development can be a way. At the same time, the competitiveness of the festival for an amusing community should be further sharpened. Seeking a way to share the oral literature with more people is also required.The popularity of the Arirang festivals that now take the form of a comprehensive theme park has increased notably among regions where the song was originated. The festivals that named after their originating provinces are necessary to discover new killer content based on a certain theme while making multifaceted approach to preservation, restoration and transmission of their original values. The content might include Silgyeong (scenic background) Musical, acoustic holograms, B-boy Madang Nori and Jadam Arirang. Partnering with the Arirang Museum and Arirang training centers will also be helpful in systematically developing the new content. In doing so, the development should focus not only on academic but practical achievements (cultural content and storytelling resources), which can make contributions to the improvement of local communities and quality of their people’s lives. The resources can be found in orally transmitted laugh, emotional fun, shared creativity and a sense of happiness for healing. When it comes to utilizing the oral literature and resources, places and regions are the first thing to consider.The Korean Wave festivals led by K-Arirang is expected to play a critical role in promoting communication and sympathy not only in Korea but countries across the world. Despite the booming K-culture in recent years, most of the participants of numerous Arirang festivals are locals from their respected regions. However, given the increasing popularity of K-pop songs worldwide, the K-Arirang festivals have the potential to gain such popularity. It is also likely that such festivals can be held between the North and the South, Korea and China and even Japan. In fact, the North-South Korea Arirang festival fits exactly the spirit of the Arirang. The fact that the greatness of Arirang that is its performance and the capacity to unite people is inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity both in two Koreas and that the song becomes a symbolic heritage of the Peninsula provides us with more opportunities to create a variety of the festivals than ever before. As such, now is the time to accelerate the efforts to develop killer content by seeking a vision for a future global Arirang festival and K-Arirang event which can appeal to people in the international community.