KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I am a professor at the Department of Wood Science Technology at Jeonbuk National University in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. From 2014 to 2018, I was also the university’s 17th president. Since March this year, I have concurrently served as the fifth president of the Korea Association of Wood Culture (KAWC).

2. What is the KAWC and what does it do?

The KAWC was established in 2014 as a special corporation under the Korea Forest Service based on Article 16 of the Wood Utilization Act. Aiming at promoting wood culture, stimulating related education, and promoting the use of wood, the association conducts diverse programs to reinforce the foundation of wood culture and disseminate and publicize related content, including measuring the wood culture index required by law; planting indoor forests at welfare facilities; holding the Hanmok Design Contest; evaluating wood educators; training woodworking instructors; and conducting research in the sector.

3. Early last May, the International Wood Culture Society (IWCS) video-recorded various features of Korea’s wood culture with the help of the KAWC. How did the two organizations work together for this project?

As a global non-governmental organization based in China, Taiwan, and the US, the IWCS participated in the 15th World Forestry Congress held at Coex in Seoul and promoted World Wood Day, which falls on March 21. The World Wood Day is a day of festivity attracting wood sculptors, furniture designers, folk craft masters, artists, musicians, and academics from around the world to share wood culture content and hold academic exchange. The KAWC has interacted with the IWCS since taking part in the 2017 festival in Los Angeles and received its request for cooperation in hosting the congress in Seoul. The KAWC’s assistance to the IWCS comprised providing Korean content in wood culture and helping contact writers and other personnel to set up and operate exhibition booths. After the event, the KAWC organized a three-day tour of Korea’s wood culture for IWCS staff.

4. What do the IWCS videos show about Korean wood culture?

The IWCS exhibited Korean woodcarvings and traditional masks and musical instruments made of wood. It also interacted with congress attendees through on-the-spot demonstrations of wood sculpting and instrument playing. The IWCS video recordings tried to capture everything aforementioned. Woodcarvings and traditional wooden instruments are the central content of World Wood Day, even if they are easily accessible in daily life. The three-day tour featured Korea’s leading architectural properties made of wood such as the Buddhist temple of Buseok in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and Hahoe Village in Andong, South Gyeongsang Province. In the hope that the IWCS videos document a cultural succession connecting past and present, we guided the film team at traditional wooden buildings on a university campus built by recreating old structures with modern technology. Expectations are also high for interviews with and demonstrations of master makers of Hahoe masks, traditional wooden furniture, and musical instruments.

5. How can people see these videos of Korea’s wood content online?

Video clips from the World Forestry Congress will be uploaded on the Instagram account of World Wood Day (@worldwoodday), and other segments will undergo editing before the videos are uploaded later this year on the World Wood Day website (www.worldwoodday.org)Facebook page, and YouTube channel. Since a decade ago, the IWCS has accumulated a variety of video content from around the globe through World Wood Day, building human networks. I hope that the video recordings by the IWCS will promote Korea’s excellent wood culture as embodied through traditional crafts and architecture, and that the IWCS will maintain close cooperation with the KAWC so that Korea will host World Wood Day in the future.

6. What is KAWC doing to promote Korean wood culture overseas?

The KAWC not only takes part in the World Forestry Congress and World Wood Day but also holds academic exchanges with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations to enhance Korean wood culture both at home and abroad. Recently, we produced and shared publicity videos and are now mulling how to best utilize them via our YouTube channel and Facebook page.

7. What would you say makes Korean wood culture unique?

While China, Japan, and Korea have similar wood cultures, Korea’s ancestors left an indigenous and highly diversified wood culture developed in harmony with nature and the living environment. By visualizing the familiar-looking curved roofs of hanok (traditional houses) and furniture from the Joseon Dynasty, we can create world-class designs and processing technology. Regretfully, however, most of the country’s time-honored wooden cultural assets were destroyed due to frequent foreign invasions and wars.

8. What should Korea do to become a global leader of wood culture and woodworking technology?

In the background of wood culture, there are generous forests that grow trees and provide wood. Because of the global climate crisis, forests are receiving renewed attention for their environmental value of absorbing carbon dioxide in the air. Now is the time to establish a wood culture based on the sustainable use of wood. Forests cover about 65 percent of Korean territory, and the world recognizes our nation’s successful reforestation projects. We must positively make use of our rich forests and strive to plant good tree species, raise wood self-sufficiency, and disseminate an eco-friendly wood culture through advanced wood processing technology.

9. What are your plans and goals as KAWC president?

The term “wood culture” remains largely unfamiliar to the public. To promote wood culture in connection with the environmental movement that targets carbon neutrality and other goals, I will propose and promote enjoyable experiences with wood and its use in everyday life. I will also encourage the proper consumption of wood by enhancing and spreading a mature wood culture to boost the development of the wood industry and usher into the era of carbon neutrality.