CULTURAL POLITICS AND CONTESTED PLACE IDENTITY

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Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 640–656, 2004 # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2004.01.004

CULTURAL POLITICS AND CONTESTED PLACE IDENTITY Sunny Jeong Carla Almeida Santos University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Abstract: This paper considers festivals as place-contingent cultural politics and examines them as political instruments and promotional products at the same time. Conflicts between globalization, tradition, and place identity are discussed by examining the Kangnung Dano festival in Korea. Findings suggest that the contested meaning of place leads to the reconstruction of regional identities and the reframing of symbolic identities. Kangnung Dano is read as a ‘‘cultural framework’’ reflecting simplistic and dualistic classifications of festivals into sacred and secular, public and private, and social conflicts and cohesion through place identification. The paper proposes that regional identity has been dynamically constructed and is re-constructing due to contested meanings of place. Keywords: cultural politics, festivals, place identity, globalization. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Re´sume´: Politique culturelle et identite´ de lieu conteste´e. Cet article conside`re d’abord les festivals comme des e´ve´nements de la politique culturelle qui de´pendent d’un lieu, et ensuite il les examine simultane´ment en tant qu’instruments politiques et produits promotionnels. On discute des conflits entre la mondialisation, la tradition et l’identite´ de lieu en examinant le festival de Kangnung Dano en Core´e. Les re´sultats sugge`rent que la signification conteste´e du lieu me`ne a` la reconstruction des identite´s re´gionales et recadre des identite´s symboliques. Kangnung Dano se lit comme un « cadre culturel » qui refle`te des classifications simplistes et dualistes des festivals entre sacre´ et profane, publique et prive´ et conflit ou cohe´sion sociaux selon l’identification de lieu. L’article soutient que l’identite´ re´gionale a e´te´ construite de fac¸on dynamique et qu’elle est en train de se reconstruire graˆce aux significations de lieu conteste´es. Mots-cle´s: politique culturelle, festivals, identite´ de lieu, mondialisation. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION During the past decade, Korea has witnessed a growing interest in festivals celebrating local cultural and historical traditions. As a result, the number of festivals has dramatically increased, reaching approximately 400 in 1998 (Lee 1998). This growing interest has gained the attention of central and local governments, which view festivals as tools for spurring economic development, given their potential to Sunny (Seonhee) Jeong is Doctoral Candidate in Leisure Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign IL 61820, USA. Email ). Her main research areas are community empowerment, social capital, and social network. Carla Almeida Santos is Assistant Professor in the Department of Leisure Studies at the same university. Her interests include mass mediated tourism messages and the politics of representation.

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attract both tourists and new residents to economically neglected regions (Ashworth and Voodg 1990; Hall and Hubbard 1996; Jarvis 1994; Kearns and Philo 1993; Paddison 1993). Nongovernmental groups are also increasingly becoming aware of the significance of festivals, which can be viewed as demonstrations and celebrations of community power and solidarity (Marston 1989; Rinaldo 2002), as mechanisms of social control (Burke 1978; Ekman 1991; Jarvis 1994; Rydell 1984), and as mechanisms of resistance to social control (Cohen 1982; Jackson 1988, 1992; Smith 1995; Western 1992). Regarding the latter, they can be seen as attempts by dominant political and social groups to exercise hegemony over less powerful groups by supplying the masses with national celebrations that divert attention from ‘‘real’’ issues. While these celebrations are intended to appear inclusive, they actually involve the implementation of exclusion strategies that draw symbolic boundaries between ‘‘invited’’ and ‘‘not invited’’ (Davis 1986; Gallup 1988; Waterman 1998). Alternatively, they can be seen as arenas in which politically and socially marginalized groups can express discontent and challenge the established order through symbolic revolutionary acts; thus, they can be seen as mechanisms of resistance to the dominant social order. Therefore, festivals are typically not spontaneous events; they are ‘‘serious fun’’ (Henderson 1991:11), rigorously planned and controlled by a group of directors and producers who arrange programs for audiences, invite artists to perform, select venues, and otherwise act as gatekeepers (Greenfeld 1988). While it has been recognized that politics provide a context in which cultural questions of aesthetics, taste, and style cannot be divorced from political questions of power, inequality, and oppression (Jackson 1989, 1993; Jarvis 1994), its effects on issues of place identity have been largely undocumented, particularly within the context of Korea. For that reason, this paper seeks, through an institutional ethnographic approach, to identify the conflicting relationships among cultural politics, place identity, social control and resistance operating in the Kangnung Dano Festival (KDF) in Korea. In doing so, it exposes the relationships that determine the generation and maintenance of power over the construction of the KDF experience for tourists and hosts. By exposing these relationships, it reveals the ideological and social processes that produce experiences of subordination and identity.

Festivals and Cultural Politics Cultural politics are an inevitable outcome of the entanglement between culture and politics. Specifically, the notion points to a conception of culture as a highly disputed expression, in which subjectivity, identity, and ideology are prominent (Jordan and Weedon 1995). Festivals provide a ‘‘link between culture and politics, using the emotional content of art forms as the vehicle through which societies define and transform themselves to meet certain ideals’’ (Smith

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1995:144). Thus, they provide a vehicle through which people can advocate or contest certain notions of identity and ideology. In a global society characterized by a post-industrial, service-based economy, festivals are increasingly being conceptualized as vehicles for commodification. In essence, postmodernism marks the rise of an aestheticism of experience that erodes all distinctions between culture as art and as a way of life. However, the notions of globalization and consumption have limited power to explain the occurrence of festivals (Smith 1995). First, they occur in specific localities and offer representations of certain elements of those localities, resulting in the creation of a powerful sense of place. Thus, they are local in nature, while making an appeal to a global culture (Zukin 1991). Second, as noted, they can have many purposes beyond commodification, such as consolidation of social control, resistance to it, or demonstration of community solidarity. Historically, they were produced for political purposes (Jarvis 1994), and there is no indication that the postmodern turn has undermined the festival’s traditional rationale (Cohen 1986).

THE KANGNUNG DANO FESTIVAL The municipality of Kangnung, situated in the eastern part of Korea with a population of approximately 230,000 in 2002, is recognized for its unique natural setting, bordered by the ocean on the east and the Taeback mountain range on the west. These natural barriers hindered transportation and migration before the construction of the YoungDong Highway in 1975, thus isolating Kangnung and preserving it in a relatively pristine condition. In Kangnung, as in other regions of Korea, local people developed Shamanism to worship the surrounding natural features, including the Taeback Mountains and the East Sea, which were viewed as governing the city and its main industries, agriculture, and fishing. Thus, a tradition of sacrifice rituals to the spirits of the mountains and the ocean was developed to encourage bountiful crops and catches, ward off natural disasters, and prevent illnesses throughout the summer season. These rituals comprise the primary motif of the Kangnung festival. The KDF is one of several held throughout Korea to celebrate the famous May 5th Dano Korean holiday, one of the three most important holidays, along with Thanksgiving and New Year, until the 1970s. At that time, modernization led to a de-emphasis on the agriculture and fishing industries, and so interest in the traditional religious ceremonies of the holiday began to wane. These ceremonies ceased to be incorporated in many festivals, but they continued to be a part of Kangnung’s, making it unique among Danos in Korea. The KDF is speculated to date back to the 10th century Koryo Dynasty (Jang 1988), with its current format established in 1966. A year later, it was awarded the Intangible Cultural Properties #13 Award, a cultural designation created by the central government to acknowledge and promote invaluable traditions, in order to sustain them for future generations. This award has provided one of the rationales for

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conserving it in its present form, rather than reconstructing it according to current tourism demands. In addition to traditional religious ceremonies, it also provides tourists with a four-day market on the dunes of the NamDae River. In 1998, the Kangnung Development Institute estimated that approximately 1.5 million people visited Kangnung during the KDF season.

Study Methodology Institutional ethnography is the empirical investigation of linkages among local settings of everyday life and translocal processes of administration and governance (DeVault and McCoy 2003). Its ontology views the social world as organized in powerful ways by translocal social relations that affect and shape local decisions, according to a dynamic that occurs in multiple sites with multiple actors. The goal of institutional ethnography is to understand the intersection of these processes and decisions; as such, the aim is to explore a particular process within a specific context to expose the connection (DeVault and McCoy 2003). Institutional ethnography uses informants’ accounts as windows not directly into their individual inner experiences, but into the web of political relationships that shapes them (Smith 1996). Particularly, it enters the debate by examining the experiences of specific individuals, whose lives and activities are shaped by institutional ‘‘relations of ruling,’’ allowing for an exploration of these activities and their positioning within extended sequences of action. In the past, institutional ethnography has been employed to examine a variety of sociocultural and political processes, including the regulation of sexuality (Smith 1998), international development (Mueller 1995), sociocultural activism (Ng 1996; Walker 1990), and the organization of home and community life (DeVault 1991). This study takes an institutional ethnographic approach by seeking to identify the conflicting and ruling sociopolitical relationships in the production and execution of the KDF, in order to determine how the power to shape experiences and place identity is generated and seized. The sources of data analyzed in this study include archival materials, local newspapers, personal observations, and interviews with 20 individuals, including a police officer, a city governor, two artists, a news producer from a local television station, an Internet broadcasting director, four student volunteers, six booth employees, three local market employees, and a professor of folk culture. All interviews, except those with two of the student volunteers and one of the booth employees, were conducted during the festival’s off-season. Each interview lasted between 1 and 5 hours. Arrangements were then made for follow-up meetings, which lasted approximately one day during festival season and allowed for observation of the sociocultural and political processes noted by the informants in their interviews. All interviews and observations were conducted between 1998 and 2001. Members of the festival’s financial and organizational committees were interviewed first, followed by committee members involved

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with ceremonies, booth employees, volunteers, and local market employees. Interviews explored each individual’s personal experience working with the festival, his/her development of the knowledge required for the job, his/her assessment of tourists’ and locals’ desires regarding the festival, and his/her self-identity in terms of social status. In addition, connections between this identity and the individual’s involvement, and his/her assessment of the cultural politics surrounding the development and organization of the festival are examined. In this study, cultural politics are defined as ‘‘maps of meaning’’ (Jackson 1989), rather than culture as an artistic product and politics as affiliation with a particular party. Given the purpose and methodology of this study, it was essential for the research to go beyond interviews and personal observations, to investigate a historical chain of action. Therefore, archival materials and local newspapers were analyzed, as they identify individuals’ activities across time and space. Analysis concerned identifying the institutions represented in the data (media, government, festival committee) and noting themes in their ruling discourses. Data were analyzed in a three-step process. First, the researchers sought to understand and contextualize the everyday experiences of individuals involved in the KDF. Second, connections between their experiences with the festival and relevant literature on issues such as Confucianism and gender relations were explored. Third, the researchers examined the ways in which individuals affected by the KDF categorize events and attempt to exert control over them through institutional forces, such as media promotion and programming.

Inclusion and Exclusion of Functions of Festivals Two criteria have often been employed to evaluate the success of Korean festivals: distinctiveness of theme and lack of dependence on government funding. Festivals that have successfully pioneered a new theme typically create a bandwagon effect, with other cities scrambling to reproduce the theme in festivals of their own. This process has led to homogenization, and so cities are increasingly examining their own histories and cultures to create unique, indigenous themes that will increase their distinctiveness. The KDF is perceived as successful based on three rationales provided by its organizers and by local people: the uniqueness of its format, its sustainability, and its independence of government funding. As one committee member stated: Kangnung Dano is very much different from other Dano festivals, as you know, because we have strong traditions. Its history. . .its origin, goes back thousands of years ago. We do a sacrifice ceremony to the mountain god and Sungwhang [historical hero] and it has been hosted by all local people voluntarily, not government at all. . .,unlike other festivals which depend on public funds and administrators.

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Tradition is marketed as the primary theme of the KDF, and this theme is expressed through emphases on the festival’s estimated 2300 year history and on Kangnung’s religious history. However, two major inconsistencies exist between this stated theme and the reality of the festivals. One, while it has been held since the 2nd century BC, its current format was established in 1966, leading to the receipt of the central government’s Intangible Properties #13 Award. Two, while Kangnung’s religious tradition includes Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, the festival incorporates only Confucian rituals, while ignoring traditional Shamanist and Buddhist rituals. These findings echo the idea that historical preservation is inevitably a selective process, which reflects only a limited spectrum of acceptable social values (Jackson 1995). Thus, traditions are preserved and transmitted selectively, and these processes are key components of the production of culture, communication (Davis 1986), and identity. In the case of the KDF, the preservation of one particular religious tradition over others concentrates authority in the ritual performers of that tradition. The question then becomes: ‘‘Who selected which traditions of Kangnung to prioritize and why?’’ For example, although the KDF was originally a Shamanic festival, involving the worship of a mountain spirit, in its modern format, the mountain spirit has been replaced with actual historical figures, who lived in the eras of the Koryo (918–1392) and Chosun (1392–1910) Dynasties. In the Koryo era, Buddhism was the national religion, while in the Chosun era, Confucianism predominated, and Buddhism was marginalized. Despite Confucianism’s incompatibility with Shamanism and Buddhism, in the current format of the KDF, Confucian rituals are used to honor Shamanist and Buddhist heroes. The change from a general mountain spirit to specific historical individuals as objects of worship was made to increase community cohesion, as the heroes chosen for worship had resided in the local area. The Confucian format of the ceremony, however, was chosen to reinforce principles that confer social distinction on individuals who perform religious ceremonies, elevating them as symbolic governors of the community. Confucianism in the Chosun era proposed four class and gender categories, with the King as the supreme ruler. Only members of the highest social class, Yangban, had the responsibility of performing rituals to pray for the community’s protection. Today, the festival is organized and its rituals performed by those who are believed to be the descendants of the Yangban. The individual performers are chosen not by local residents, but by dominant social groups connected through kinship and educational ties. As the chair of one of the committees stated: Kangnung people say if the crop was abundant in fall, it is thanks to ritual performers who did a good job during the ceremony. And if ten seamen were accidentally to die, it might have been 100 deaths without Dano rituals. . .Those who run Dano rituals are of the Kim and Choi families who are believed to be the successors to the Yangban.

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A board member stated: I have served in the Dano ceremonies for ten years or so. But no payment. . .there is no money value for that work. It’s all voluntary work for my community. . .I am getting to be way too busy nowadays with all the positions I am offered to work for my community by governments, committees and so forth. . .It must be that local people recognize me as a good person to serve them. . .[prideful laugh]

Thus, performers of rituals are regarded as ‘‘wise’’ and ‘‘judicious’’ individuals who are the protectors of the community and are charged with ensuring its prosperity. Historical exactness matters less than the current social structure of Kangnung, which identifies the dominant group’s cultural identity as primarily Confucian. This group is motivated to maintain Confucianism’s dominance in KDF rituals, as it ensures the perpetuation of their high symbolic status in the community. Another interesting aspect of the KDF is its source and magnitude of funding. While most local festivals in Korea operate on an average budget of $50,000, provided by the municipal government, the KDF’s annual budget is approximately $420,000, almost all of which is provided by local citizens’ donations (94% in 1997, 76% in 1998) (Kangnung Cultural Center 1998). Furthermore, it is organized and promoted by local volunteers. Considering that one of the key principles of sustainability concerns the need to involve local people in the planning and management of their home environments (Godfrey 1998), at first glance, this festival seems highly successful and sustainable. Over the last two decades, committee members have increasingly emphasized the nature of its organization and funding as evidence of a sense of solidarity and common identity among the people of Kangnung. Upon closer analysis, however, it becomes apparent that the idea of the KDF as a festival by and for the Kangnung community is relatively recent in origin. Its genesis actually lies in the efforts of private enterprises to offer personal prayers to the Taeback Mountains and East Sea for the prosperity of their businesses, not for the prosperity of all Kangnung. It was not until the city government, and later the Dano committee, gained control over the festival that its purpose was broadened to include the welfare of the entire community. This shift to a community focus has brought enthusiastic and substantial support from the local authorities, in the form of rent-free spaces, monetary donations, and volunteerism. In addition to contributions from the local authorities, further funding and support are levied through a social network of elite individuals who share one of three common social backgrounds: they are members of the two dominant local families (Kim and Choi), they attended the same local high schools, or they are politicians originally from Kangnung, but not currently involved in the governing of Kangnung. It is this same elite network, and not the general citizenry of Kangnung, that controls the content

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and determines who will perform in its ceremonies, an issue which will be discussed more thoroughly in the next section. Thus, neither in the past nor the present has its nature been truly communal. Rather, its format operates to ally socially privileged individuals and political elites, who share vested interests in maintaining the community’s present power structure. These dominant groups use it to claim community solidarity and support, while simultaneously creating a platform for their own ideologies and agendas. Thus, the KDF can be seen as a mechanism of social control, used to extend the authority of a community’s corporate, political, and scientific leadership—showing that celebrations are not necessarily just passive displays of regional tradition and culture, but rather intentional demonstrations of community power aimed at sustaining the social status of dominant groups. Thus, the content is not always traditional or authentic, not only in the sense that specific histories and traditions are selected over others, but also in the sense that tradition and authenticity are reconstructed according to the demands of those in power.

Participation in the Festival In the case of Kangnung, local identity, as explicitly and implicitly defined by members of the dominant group, conflicts with the ideas and identities of other groups, such as women, youth, and newcomers to the area. The KDF, however, reflects only the identity of the dominant group, as it deliberately employs several strategies to prevent the inclusion of other identities in the festival. First, three categories of people are explicitly excluded from being active performers in the festival: new residents of the area, because they have no family or alumni affiliation with Kangnung; for-profit businesses, because their profit-seeking missions are perceived as being incompatible with KDF traditions; and women and youth, who are considered to be ‘‘secular’’ and ‘‘immature,’’ respectively, according to Confucian values, and are thus viewed as being dependent on adult men. Because only men are allowed to perform rituals, women’s roles in the KDF are largely limited to providing assistance in the market, particularly in the dining services. Criticism regarding its lack of programs for or by women is often expressed in the local newspaper and at local conferences. As one interviewee stated: Who is the Dano festival for? We are so obsessed with showing off to outsiders that we are doing good work that we end up ignoring our community members. There are not many programs for women participants to attend. Also, we have very limited programs open for women organizers. Mostly women get to have an exhibition of flower arrangements or traditional food booths. That’s all that women get.

Several enthusiasts in local associations are committed to incorporating new activities that would express identities beyond those of the dominant group, but their voices are often ignored. For example, the

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director of the Kangnung Theater was not allowed to incorporate a proposed program, because he was a newcomer to the area. He said: Every year, I submitted a proposal for a new program for KDF. A traditional play by Kwanno Mask Theater. I tried for five years but it was not accepted. Finally, I talked to one of the committee members personally and he said, ‘‘It would be so nice if the city or cultural center of Kangnung would host the project—but a mere local theater? No way!’’. . .I was ready to work with any authority party if authority is what matters. But they rejected it again by saying ‘‘This idea is too progressive!’’ I knew that they did not want me to work for them since I am an outsider. I am not from Kangnung.

Also excluded was a member of a youth group who proposed incorporating Internet broadcasting: I was thinking about running a real-time broadcasting of the festival through an Internet site. I submitted the proposal to the city and the committee of KDF. But they were reluctant to accept it because they don’t know anything about technology. . .they are too old. Their average age is 65 years old. . .

Public vs. Private Place in the Festival An important facet of most festivals is that they produce a sense of place. This sense is culturally defined, as places can be conceptualized as cultural artifacts of social conflict and cohesion (Shields 1991; Rinaldo 2002; Relph 1975; Zukin 1991). In the case of the KDF, it aspires to create a unifying regional identity for the Kangnung community. It attempts to appeal to people with varying interests, by including such diverse elements as religious ceremonies, sporting events, exhibitions, artistic performances, a market, and more. However, not everyone is welcomed at every place. According to Zukin (1995), festivals highlight the contentiousness over what is public and what is private. While some see festivals as belonging within the private sphere of artists and intellectuals, because their physical and performance elements are the products of their talents and abilities, the existence of an audience forces them to recognize their obligations as performers in the public sphere. As a result, events are typically no longer performed where people live and work, but in particular public spaces designated by city and festival officials. In contrast, small neighborhood performances, which lack the media coverage and prestige of official ceremonial performances, become relatively invisible and, in a sense, private (Davis 1986). In the case of the KDF, a few rituals are specifically arranged for residents of the municipality, and to some extent for people from other areas, while most other events are intended to attract a broad spectrum of tourists. Thus, places must be clearly allocated for each type of event, based on the intended audience.

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Over time, this process has sometimes led to the exclusion of tourists from heritage sites, such as in the case of its Bristol’s 1996 International Festival of the Sea, where its maritime heritage docklands fought to ensure that the event was performed for its local participants, not for the tourist’s gaze (Atkinson and Laurier 1998). In the case of the KDF, rituals are performed at a holy site used for sacred ceremonies. This site is located in the mountains and is not well known to tourists, despite the fact that the rituals are advertised as the primary theme. Furthermore, Confucian rituals, which shape its distinctive characteristics, do not welcome a ‘‘tourist gaze,’’ due to the local nature of Confucian symbolic identification. Information transmitted through brochures, the Internet, and broadcast media that targets tourists focuses only on the four day Dano market on the dunes of the NamDea River and does not include information on the religious rituals. Therefore, while some tourists do want to observe the rituals, organizers discourage this by not providing any information regarding the time or location of the rituals in media intended to reach tourists. Tourists must obtain this information from the local people, if they wish to attend the religious ceremonies. In contrast, local advertisements cover all aspects of the festival, including the rituals. The city’s daily newspaper, Kangnung Il Bo, and its local broadcasting station, Kangnung MBC, advertise all the events, beginning with the symbolic opening, the brewing of holy alcohol for use in the ceremonies, which occurs a month before the actual festival begins. Adult men are shown performing the rituals, while women and youth are shown as a passive audience, only in attendance to show respect to the gods and performers. Thus, media coverage reinforces for the residents of Kangnung the distinction between performers, who are the symbolic governors of the community, and nonperformers, who are merely passive observers to be governed. A month after the brewing ceremony, on the day that is publicized to tourists as the first day, a parade is held to represent the transferring of a holy spirit embodied in a tree from the sacred temples in the Taeback Mountains to a ceremonial place in the corner of the Dano market. This parade marks an important symbolic transition between the private, sacred ceremonies and the secular, public festival events that will follow at the market. After the parade, the number of active ritual performers decreases dramatically, and the festival begins to be viewed by the elite as an expression of entertainment, rather than religion. The market is viewed as being trivial and vulgar, because it is directed toward tourists and because women, youth, and employees of for-profit businesses are allowed to participate as performers and program organizers. Religious ceremonies that occur in the market are perceived as neither serious nor sacred. Women from other towns are invited to perform at the market, and because they wear colorful costumes and dance to lively music, their performances are not considered to be holy events, but rather amusing spectacles created to fulfill the self-interests of individuals who are willing to pay $10–50 to have their personal prayers incorporated into the rituals.

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Dominant groups also preserve their authority by regulating the attendance of youth at events. One high school student remarked, ‘‘I will be penalized in school if I go to the Dano market at night. . .My teachers in school rotated to supervise and prohibit students who are present in Dano market from going again.’’ As Burke argued, carnivals are partly a ritual of socialization and control, providing ‘‘the means for a community, a village or urban parish, to express its hostility to individuals who stepped out of line and so to discourage breaches of custom’’ (1978:200). Categorization of events and the spaces where they occur as alternatively sacred or secular conveys to the locals a sense of what is proper and what is not. The KDF functions to secure ‘‘a sense of social solidarity—of commonness, boundedness and exclusivity’’ (Smith 1995:144). Cohen (1986) argued that symbolic boundaries are as salient as any tangible dividing line, and that public events are boundary-making mechanisms, through which people can declare their differences. As Smith noted, ‘‘Boundaries are constructed to celebrate difference, [and] in doing so they often signal inequality’’ (1995:161). Waterman (1998) noted that art festivals are used by elites to establish social distance between themselves and others, and Blau (1996) recognized that, in general, the arts have been part of the process through which social elites define themselves as the dominant class and establish social distance between themselves and the rest of the population, drawing on the distinction between popular and high culture to bolster class differences. In the case of the KDF, symbolic boundaries are drawn by the dominant group to maintain control over the identity of the festival and the sense of place it creates. Confucianism, which is rationalized by this group as an ideal culture, is thus established as central to the festival’s identity, at the expense of groups that are specifically disempowered by Confucianist principles. Thus, spatial strategies are used by a select group of individuals, united through the institutional ties of kinship and education, to advance their own cultural politics.

Globalization and Commercialism Globalization pressures and economic development have forced Kangnung to identify itself as a global city. The discourse of globalization challenges not only regional identity, but also dominant groups’ identities, which are based on ‘‘their’’ traditions. The Kangnung art community represents one forum in which the notions of tradition and identity are highly contested. In Kangnung, traditional art forms have been prioritized over modern forms, and some modern artists interviewed in this study expressed frustration over their marginalized status: As a contemporary artist, I was ignored for a long time in my hometown even though I had five exhibitions in Seoul. Who cares about modern art in Kangnung? Nobody! The dead heroes of the city hold back cultural development in Kangnung. . .

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I suggested modernized masks for the mask dance this year. . .well, it was not accepted, but I really believe that we need to consider traditions as a developing and alive process, not as stuffed tradition, in order to globalize our festival.

According to Zukin (1991), there is a tendency for globalization to diminish the sense of place. The spread of national and global cultures tends to weaken local distinctiveness, but localities sometimes actively combat this process by seeking to emphasize their uniqueness, and thus avoid homogenization. Thus, globalization does not represent an end to territorial distinctions and distinctiveness, but instead adds new influences on local identities (Sletto 2001). When discussing current issues of Kangnung, one of the professionals interviewed suggested that the future lies in globalizing the event: The festival is not only for the Kangnung people, and we have enough confidence to globalize our city and festival. . .Inviting foreign artists and publishing foreign brochures are not enough to survive in globalization though. . .KDF needs to innovate and modernize the program, and more local people should become involved in KDF to make sure we modernize our uniqueness. It can be designated as an Intangible World Cultural Property.

This perspective necessarily challenges its current identity, which emphasizes the traditions of an ‘‘old’’ and ‘‘modest’’ cultural group, because embedded in the concept of globalization are notions of market-orientation and diversity. Thus, a globalized KDF would likely carry an identity that is both more commercial and more inclusive of currently marginalized groups than its present identity. This issue deserves future research attention. In addition to globalization, commodification, as a condition of postmodern society (Harvey 1989), challenges the ability of organizers to keep the festival’s identity and sense of place unique. Festivals are considered valuable commodities by the tourism and entertainment industries, which have become important agents in regional economic regeneration in Korea. Thus, ‘‘selling’’ a festival, as an inseparable component of place marketing, is rapidly becoming a significant role of most planners. Currently, no mass produced products bearing a KDF logo, such as t-shirts or key-chains, are sold. Commercializing it would inevitably involve the marketing of such items, which would add an air of generic mass production. Currently, the market, like the other elements, is managed by its leaders. Their view of the market as secular and vulgar has prevented it from being emphasized as an important element of the festival, and so it has been loosely regulated. This lack of regulation has led to a prevalence of vendors from outside Kangnung, who bring products to the market and sell them at prices lower than those charged by local merchants for the same items in the off-season. While some young (mid-40s) members of the committee favor promoting and commercializing the KDF, the most powerful leaders generally have a negative

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view of commercialization and do not favor promoting it through the sale of products bearing a logo at the market, which could enhance economic conditions for local merchants. The interviews conducted for this study demonstrate Kangnung residents’ doubt regarding the economic benefits provided to the city by the KDF in its current format. One individual stated, This festival is going to kill the local market. . .During more than two months after the Dano festival, the local economy has been severely damaged by leaking profit out of Kangnung, since 60% of businesses in Dano are from other regions. It is the biggest cost of the community festival. . .I don’t even open my store for a while after the Dano Festival.

One of the police officers interviewed articulated just how bad the market situation is: Currently, the main economy of Kangnung city depends on tourism and service oriented businesses. However, Kangnung Dano Festival doesn’t seem to care much about the local economic development. . .rather, it harms local markets. A few years ago. . .it was the worst year. A few furious local clothing storeowners decided to protest against 90% discount of seasonal blankets from Seoul in Dano market. It resulted in a violent fight between local business and non-local business.

The reluctance of the most powerful committee members to commercialize the festival was evident in one of the committee member’s statements: We never trust the Korean National Tourism Organization, which promotes more ‘‘money making’’ festivals. It never understands what is culture and tradition. . .They excluded KDF in the brochures of the seven main Korean festivals, because it doesn’t make a profit from tourists. . .Do they have a brain? It doesn’t make any sense. . .Commercial festivals like Youju Pottery Festival are not real festivals. . .It’s junk to do business.

The powerful committee members do not see commercialization as necessary to generate funding, as they are able to use their power in the community to effectively solicit donations. This method of fundraising may not be sustainable, however, due to weakening ties between residents and their families, city, and regional traditions. The younger generation is not necessarily willing to maintain the dominant culture of the older generation. As the chief of the artists association stated, A recent survey done by the city showed that most Kangnung citizens believe the main resources for the city economy should be culture and tourism. But we will never make it if we stick to the old and dead traditions. . .I don’t think that the young generation believes in spiritual things such as holy mountains and oceans. Who cares? Then why don’t we consider vibrant and dynamic culture in present Kangnung society. We can consider pop culture, hip-hop dance and rap music to attract young groups for the Dano festival.

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The younger generation and the women of Kangnung often see traditionalism, as determined by Confucian principles of collectivism over individualism, as a constraint to the growth of entrepreneurial tourism activities and innovations. Thus, in this context, the debate over promotion and commercialization of place can empower marginalized groups, such as women and youth, because the values implicit in commercialization, such as innovation and emphasis on the customer, better match their views of the meaning of the KDF than those held by the dominant group.

CONCLUSION The Kangnung Dano Festival provides an excellent example of cultural politics in action. Regional identity is defined by a dominant group that actively excludes the perspectives of marginalized members of the community. This paper illustrates the essentially political nature of place identity, not only in the sense that traditional place identity benefits some groups more than others, but also in that it involves a variety of conflicting ideologies. The KDF functions as a mechanism for particular groups to consolidate their privileged social status by controlling who participates in the construction of regional identity. This paper examined how certain groups gain and sustain their dominant status through the process of organizing and presenting a community cultural festival, and how other members of the community contest this group through their own meanings of place. Cultural festivals are based on traditions and features that are created through the process of reconstruction of regional history and heritage. Particular traditions and cultures are selected over others, and those that are selected reflect the ideology of the dominant group. In the case of the KDF, devotions to the Taeback Mountains and the East Sea became shared history conceived as local history and began to contribute to a collective sense of regional identity. The ideology established over the years has been consolidated by its format: the time and space arrangements of the programs and the justification of its themes under the banner of regional identity and tradition. It is designed to promote central political powers connected through kinship, educational, and geographical ties. The culture of this group, Confucianism, functions to rationalize both its dominance and the marginalization of those outside it. However, the traditional identity of the region has faced new challenges from debates regarding tourism development, globalization, and commercialization both within and beyond the community. The demand for tourism development and the need to develop into a global city urge Kangnung toward a new identity influenced less by local tradition and more by global culture. These debates can empower marginalized groups, such as women and youth, who value innovation and the broadening of the festival’s identity over the preservation of dominant traditions that function to exclude them. In its present form, it risks preserving a traditional sense of community and locality

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at the expense of fostering more universal goals of equality, rights, and justice. Festivals have become events of sociological concern, because they provide contexts in which invisible webs of local power networks can be made visible. The existence of competing place identities and practices, which are contingent on various groups’ personal interests, render regional identity amenable to manipulation. The production of festivals represents the process through which the material environment is invested with a variety of meanings that are inherently unstable, actively forged, and continually revised by different groups. ‘‘Meanings are never simply received but they are always, to varying degrees in different times and places, negotiated and contested’’ A (Jackson 1995:166)._ Acknowledgement—The authors would like to thank Kellee Caton for her insightful comments and suggestions on this paper.

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Submitted 14 August 2003. Resubmitted 20 November 2003. Accepted 18 December 2003. Final version 3 January 2004. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Linda K. Richter