Nongshim, the Main Player of 'K-Ramen', Invests 300 Million KRW in Domestic Intangible Cultural Heritage Support Project

Memorandum of Understanding with the National Intangible Heritage Center
CEO Lee Byung-hak: "Intangible Heritage Revived as K-Content"

Nongshim is launching a support project worth 300 million KRW to expand the activity base of holders of national intangible cultural heritage and enhance the value of intangible heritage.

At the business agreement ceremony between Nongshim and the National Intangible Heritage Center held at Heungbokjeon Hall, Gyeongbokgung Palace on the 26th, Lee Byung-hak, CEO of Nongshim (left), and Moon Young-chul, Acting Director of the National Intangible Heritage Center, are posing for a commemorative photo.
[Photo by Nongshim]

According to related industries on the 27th, Nongshim signed a business agreement the day before at Gyeongbokgung Palace with the National Intangible Heritage Center to promote the 'Together with K-Intangible Heritage' program.

Nongshim recognized the importance of domestic intangible heritage through its successful experience in overseas markets with Shin Ramyun, which embodies Korean food culture, and has shown steady interest in revitalizing intangible heritage, such as conducting marketing for Ansungtangmyun using Hangul as a theme.

Accordingly, to strengthen the foundation of domestic intangible heritage, which is the basis of the global K-culture craze, Nongshim judged that support for 'holders of national intangible cultural heritage' is necessary and decided to operate a support project worth a total of 300 million KRW together with the National Intangible Heritage Center. This is the first activity of its kind in the food industry.

Currently, holders of national intangible cultural heritage (on an individual basis) are divided into holders called human cultural assets, transmission educators, and holders, among which support for holders is insufficient. As a result, only about 30% of the registered 7,000 holders are actively engaged in activities.

Through this project, Nongshim plans to support the sustainable traditional cultural transmission activities of the holders. In addition, to raise social interest in intangible heritage, it will hold experiential traditional culture pop-up events and support the development of traditional goods to establish an economic virtuous cycle structure for the holders.

The experiential traditional culture pop-up events will be organized to provide participants with unique experiences. Under the theme of 'K-it Day,' which connects the beauty of Korea, the events will induce interest in intangible heritage through exhibitions and performances hosted by the holders, traditional Korean table experiences, and one-day classes. This year, about 20 related events are scheduled to be held at the Lotte World Folk Museum.

Support for the development of traditional goods aims to help the holders achieve self-reliance. With Nongshim’s funding, traditional cultural goods will be developed, and the proceeds from the sales of these goods will be used not only for transmission activity expenses but also for the development of new goods.

Lee Byung-hak, CEO of Nongshim, said, "The recent global K-culture and K-food craze is attracting interest in Korean products and giving pride to overseas Koreans." He added, "We will continue to promote various projects that help holders so that intangible heritage can be reborn as another K-content."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.