UNESCO Jokbo?

I’ll admit most readers are not following goings on in the world of Korean jokbo — a kind of genealogical record — but things are happening.

The most important issue is Korea’s preparation to apply for UNESCO recognition of Korean jokbo and enlist it in the Memory of the World program.

Korea has received UNESCO recognition in three categories: World Heritage, which includes physical monuments, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes; Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, covering living practices and traditions; and Memory of the World, which oversees documents and archival collections.

Jokbo would fit into the third category, Memory of the World, where we find the Hunmin Jeongeum documents that helped codify the Korean alphabet, the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the Tripitaka Koreana and the 718 titles included in the Confucian Printing Woodblocks collection, as well as modern documents concerning the Saemaul Movement and the May 18th Democratic Uprising in Gwangju for a total of 21 recognized collections.

Jokbo is both historical and contemporary, bridging the current ...