• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.67-82
• /
• 2001

Recently, local traditions and cultural assets have been rediscovered and developed as resources in local societies of Korea and a great deal of effort has been made to develop event tourism. Based on this renewed interest, this study chose as a case the Wang In Cultural Festival in Kurim-ri, Yongam, and examined the background of the early Wang In Cultural Festival and its evolution up to the present focusing on. the festival program. In Cultural Festival first began as the Wang In Cherry Blossom Festival in 1993 with a budget of 50 million won, and has been developed into a large-scale festival with a budget of 340 million won, attracting 500,000 visitors in 2000. Together with such evolution, there has been a great change in the organization and content of the Festival program. The most important change began in the 1997 which included a religious service for Confucian scholars called 'Chunhyang Grand Festival for Dr. Wang In' as a core program. Since then, festival programs related to Dr. Wang In have greatly increased in number. A decisive change became prominent when the festival promotion system was transferred from the Kunseo Young Men's Association during the early period(1993-1996) to Youngam-gun in 1997. It is true that the Wang In Cultural Festival, which began as a purely regional festival initiated by a non-governmental organization, changed a lot in terms of its scale and program when Youngam-gun emerged as a strong leading group in 1997. However, not enough consideration has been given to institutional devices and procedures that are required for the local culture to take a firm root in the community through the festival. Therefore, in order to solve such fundamental problems, a permanent non-governmental organization is required for festival preparation. In addition, in order to promote overall progress of the community and an increase in the quality of the cultural environment of the local society through the festival, it is necessary to discover and promote recognition of cultural groups in the community.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.326-346
• /
• 2002

This study examined how the tradition and culture based on the historical experience of the region are regenerated on the making regional identity and symbolic representation in Kurim-ri, Youngam. Kurim has represented the most typical community of the aristocratic class through Daedong-gae of 400 years. But, since 1970's Kurim has undergone a rapid change in regional identity in Kurim ; from the beginning of the spot of Wangin festival to the village of earthenware, the village of pottery culture heritage most recently. The process of history-making around Wangin in Kurim was connected with the strategy of the pottery culture village-making centering around the Youngam Pottery Culture Center. These projects ultimately were resulted in expression the regional identity, 'Kurim of Wang-in'. The regional tradition of Daedong-gae and Wangin in Kurim was linked together solidly through the Wangin festival procedures. And the excavation of a kiln site in Kurim which was going on with the process of history-making at the same time around Wangin in Kurim provided the cultural episode on related 'earthenware' with an archeological foundation. As a consequence of these, the cultural space, the Young-am Pottery Culture Center has came to establish in Kurim finally. However, recently the Kurim of Wangin and Daedong-gae which was representative of regional identity in Kurim is bringing Dosun who was distorted and estranged during the history-making focused on Wangin in Kurim. Now, there are some cultural issues in Kurim ; an authentical settlement of the Youngam Pottery Culture Center in Kurim and how Wangin and Dosun is linked together into the cultural strategy of 'the traditional village, Kurim'.