Kim Yuna's Skating and Park Seri's Club to Become 'Preliminary Cultural Heritage'?

This year, the Cultural Heritage Administration will establish a framework to preserve and manage modern cultural heritage that has been created or formed within the past 50 years. According to the 'Act on the Preservation and Use of Modern and Contemporary Cultural Heritage,' the 'Preliminary Cultural Heritage' system will be implemented starting September 15. The scope of preservation and management will be expanded from existing modern cultural heritage to contemporary cultural heritage, and utilization plans will be explored.

Photographer Chosunhee heard the story that Park Jisung played soccer barefoot as a child to develop the sensitivity of his feet, and shifted the camera focus from his face to his feet. His feet, covered in wounds, had blackened dead toenails and many calluses. They clearly showed the result of his relentless effort.

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This measure aims to minimize the possibility of neglect or damage to contemporary cultural heritage. Until now, the Cultural Heritage Administration has only considered modern and contemporary cultural heritage over 50 years old as registration candidates. Many contemporary cultural heritages outside this criterion have been damaged or lost before their historical, artistic, or social value could be evaluated.

Preliminary cultural heritage, which will fill this gap with the consent of the holders, will consist of heritage that represents contemporary life and culture or has high preservation and utilization value. The starting point is a nationwide public contest beginning in May. Submissions will be accepted for cultural heritage with symbolic or educational value in fields such as Korean history, culture, and arts, or that represent the era due to technological advancements. However, buildings are excluded from the target.

A Cultural Heritage Administration official said, "We have not yet established clear evaluation criteria," but added, "Since this is the first step, we plan to select more than ten heritages that are unlikely to cause controversy." They also stated, "We will set standards equivalent to registered cultural heritage and involve experts from related fields in the evaluation to enhance fairness and reliability."

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The most frequently mentioned heritage is the skates worn by Kim Yuna at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Kim Yuna won the gold medal with a flawless performance, achieving the highest-ever score for a female single skater (228.56 points). She became the first Korean to win a gold medal in figure skating at the Winter Olympics.

The skates are not merely sports equipment that accompanied a glorious moment. They symbolize fighting spirit and passion imbued with extraordinary effort and endurance. During her career, Kim Yuna once revealed her swollen feet with calluses and wounds on her ankle. Although she was embarrassed by what she called "ugly feet," she received praise as having "beautiful feet." The reaction was overwhelmingly respectful, expressing admiration for enduring the pain of intense training to become the best athlete.

As she rose to national hero status, then Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik in 2013 emphasized the introduction of 'preliminary cultural heritage,' citing Kim Yuna's skates as a prime example. The Cultural Heritage Administration also mentioned the same example in 2017, stating it would flexibly apply the '50-year exception rule.' While positive opinions prevailed that the value was sufficient, there were also considerable objections. Most argued that treating the shoes of living people as cultural heritage does not align with public sentiment. Questions arose about what to do with the bows of archers who sweep gold medals at every Olympics, or the gloves of Park Chan-ho, the soccer shoes of Park Ji-sung, and the swimming trunks of Park Tae-hwan. This highlights the need for clear criteria for the preliminary cultural heritage system.

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The golf club used by Park Se-ri at the 1998 US Women's Open is similarly notable. Its symbolic value is second to none. Park Se-ri emerged as the champion of women's golf worldwide by scoring a birdie on the second hole of the sudden death playoff. Especially, her actions on the 18th hole during the playoff moved many Koreans struggling through the IMF crisis. She took off her shoes and black socks and entered the water to safely hit the ball, which was on a steep downhill slope and only about 20 cm from the water. Her bare white feet contrasted sharply with her dark legs, suggesting extraordinary effort and endurance.

The issue is timing. Although she has retired from professional play, she has been actively appearing on variety shows recently, making it somewhat premature. Some opinions suggest that it would not be too late for the state to manage the club once it has been well preserved by the individual or in a museum, allowing the cultural heritage aura to deepen. Another obstacle is that the club is an imported product. Park Se-ri used Callaway products from driver to putter at the time. Since cultural heritage values the worth passed on to the next generation, public opinion may be divided.

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In the sports world, the hoop used at the 1988 Seoul Olympics is considered the heritage most likely to pass through the needle's eye. Seven-year-old Yoon Tae-woong rolled it alone during the opening ceremony and entered the center of the main stadium. The silence that lasted about two minutes symbolized the end of the noisy adult world of war and the Cold War. It also gave Korea, which had a strong image of war orphans, an image of peace. It left a strong impression worldwide and remains a symbol of the Seoul Olympics today. The performance, close to performance art, was planned by the late Professor Lee O-ryeong, who was a journalist and literary critic. After the Seoul Olympics, he was appointed Minister of Culture. Yoon kept the hoop wrapped in vinyl for 17 years before donating it to the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation in 2005.

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In the industrial sector, Samsung Electronics' 64M DRAM, developed in 1992 as the world's first, is a strong candidate. It is a nail-sized chip capable of storing 4 million Korean characters. This development led Samsung Electronics to become the world market leader in memory semiconductors the following year. Subsequently, they developed 256M DRAM and 1G DRAM consecutively, dominating the global memory semiconductor market.

The 'MP-F10,' released in 1998 by Digitalcast together with Saehan Information Systems, is also a strong contender. It was the world's first MP3 player. The idea of "what if we could carry music files stored on a computer in a portable player" bore fruit after about a year of research. It did not attract much attention at launch and struggled in marketing, eventually being sold to the American company SigmaTel. iRiver repurchased the patent rights in 2003 and introduced various products. Along with other domestic companies, it almost monopolized the global MP3 player market. Although popularity declined after Apple launched the touchscreen 'iPhone' in 2007, it is credited with revolutionizing humanity's digital consumption habits.

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The first kimchi refrigerator, 'GR-063,' introduced in 1984 by Geumseongsa, the predecessor of LG Electronics, is also noteworthy. It was a high-end functional refrigerator with a 45-liter capacity that could hold four plastic kimchi containers (totaling 18 kg). It gained attention with popular actress Lee Kyung-jin as the advertising model, but the timing was somewhat early. At that time, apartment supply rates were low, and many people lived in detached houses. Most households stored kimchi in kimchi jars buried in their front yards.

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The 'SE-8001,' Korea's first personal computer, is also worthy of becoming preliminary cultural heritage. It was completed in January 1981 by Sambo Electronics, the predecessor of Sambo Computer, in a small office in Cheonggyecheon. They imported foreign personal computers, modified them, and combined a television receiver as a monitor substitute. Although mainly used for corporate accounting management, it is regarded as the dawn of the era of personal computers (PCs) in Korea.

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