Globalization of Culture and Nationalism Discourse: Focusing on the UNESCO Inscription of Jeju Women-divers(jamnyeo)’s Culture in Korea

In the mid-1990s, the globalization discourse of Korea society raised the topic of globalization of Korean culture. Through the reinterpretation of the identity of Korean culture and the historical experience of the past, the globalization discourse formed a crisis discourse of national culture. The inspiration of Jeju women-divers (jamnyeo, or haenyeo)’s culture as a UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage(ICH) is an example of the globalization of culture in Korea society. The discourse of the uniqueness that women s diving culture can only be seen in Korea and Japan and this culture can disappear have been formed in Korean society since the 1990s. In the 2000s, Korea and Japan began to discuss UNESCO s ICH inspiration and international event for women divers.However, as the inspiration process was carried out around 2010, it changed to a competition between Korea and Japan. In 2013, the Jeju provincial government officially announced the inspiration of Jeju haenyeo’s culture and the nationalism discourse expanded. In the process of inspiration the jointly inspiration, which was considered to protect women-diver’s culture, was converted to the inspiration of Korea national culture, also the discourse of the local traditional culture was changed to the national culture. This change was influenced by the history of Japanese colonial rule. Therefore, the historical relationship and recognition of countries are important when the state and local society accept the UNESCO s cultural policies. In addition, Jeju haenyeo’s culture was easily combined with the crisis discourse of national culture, like this the 1990s globalization discourse of Korean culture has been formed as a crisis discourse of national culture. It should be noted that nationalism discourse can reduce or distort the globality of the culture due to ethnocentrism. Unfortunately, there has been no international exchange led by Japanese and Korean haenyeo yet. Beyond national discourse, the discourse surrounding this culture is expected to lead to new discourse by women-divers’s cultural solidarity.