A Study on Recent Trends in Cultural Properties Policy and the ‘Application’ of Cultural Properties

The philosophy of the “Cultural Properties Protection Law”, which is the highest ranked law among the original laws dealing with cultural heritage, is summarized as a ‘protection-preferential policy’ designed to ‘prevent the destruction of tangible and intangible cultural assets, which embody the identify of the Korean people, as well as protect and spread these assets’.This philosophy established with the Cultural Properties Protection Law, having continued without change for over half a century, has kept cultural asset policy hamstrung. Having been revised more than 40 times, it is nonetheless difficult to find a passage anywhere in the law in its current state that emphasizes its role or perception as a means for achieving overall growth, either culturally, economically, or politically.However, since 2000, there has been a clear change seen in the meaning and value of cultural assets than those from the past. To briefly summarize this phenomenon, it could be described as a move from ‘protection-centered to application-centered’. Likewise, this trend has been expanding as a discourse of cultural asset application under the leadership of public institutions.To be precise, ‘application’ is already included within the area of ‘transmission’. How would transmission over such a long period of time be possible without it being applied? Despite this, however, this recent scenario where only ‘application’ given any strength shows the current social perspective and perception of cultural assets.Therefore, this paper focused on examining the values and importance within which the legal, institutional and social perception surrounding cultural assets are developing, and particularly how this recent environment relates to the direction of intangible cultural heritage. In addition, I have found and suggest some positive case examples in order to find what form the desirable application of cultural heritage should take.