The Transformations of Korean Society and of the Southwestern Coastal Festival during the 19\textasciitilde21st Centuries: A Focus on Modern Nationalism, Consumerism, and Locality

To counteract the attribution of invented tradition, this study examines the changes and the socio–economical backgrounds behind the changes of the Danoje that occurred during the past two centuries; Danoje is a local festival in the southwestern region of Korea that was designated an Intangible Cultural Property in 2012. Analyzing the specific contents of the Danoje and the Korean Cultural Properties Protection Law in comparison with the Japanese law, I demonstrate how the local residents appropriate the intangible heritage to promote their commercial interests, with recourse to the nationalism of the Cultural Properties Protection Law and the late modern consumerism dating from 1980s onward. This study also underlines that the festival in the long term has evolved into the symbolic expression which coalesces the communal passion.