Human has made great progress beyond the speed of biological evolution by using tools. First, human used stones and wood as tools for hunting and gathering, and then invented earth-baked earthenware such as bowls for food, appropriate to farming life. The defects of woodenware and earthenware, however, were obvious. It was not able to contain liquid due to their moisture absorbency, and easily damaged. Earthenware has evolved into glazed ceramic but it required a high-tech kiln with high temperature, accompanied by a technology for metal refining as a key prerequisite. In East Asia, moisture proof and insect proof techniques to coat objects were invented much earlier. That is lacquer technique.\nProduction process of lacquer is delicate and complicated such as handling lacquer sap at the risk of skin disease, creating hot and humid environment for hardening process, etc. Nevertheless, in East Asia, people have used lacquer technique in many regions from the Neolithic Age, knowing its merits earlier on. Lacquer was used for adhesive and surface protection of leather, earthenware, ceramics and metalware. In particular, it has been inextricably linked to wooden objects. Whereas in West Asia and Europe various varnishes mixed with dry oil and resin has been used, in East Asia lacquer was used as a basic varnish in common. That shows that lacquer is great material and technique to represent the commonality of Asian culture.1) This article aims to briefly look into the origin of lacquer technique in Northeast Asia and share the information on it and its current status of transmission.

The Republic of Korea has undertaken systematic efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage since enactment of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act in 1962 and implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2005. Korea has a long history of institutions for cultural heritage safeguarding. Korean ICH assets are basically protected under three government organizations known as Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), Intangible Cultural Heritage Division of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and National Intangible Heritage Centre (NIHC) of Korea.A variety of national institutions have taken charge of transmission, promotion, education documenting and archiving ICH elements in consideration of their domains and characteristics. Those organizations are working collaboratively with each and many other ICH stake holders such as government and non-governmental organizations, education institutions, ICH holders and community people as well as foreign countries and international organizations in the safeguarding process of traditional music and dancing.

The evolution of industrialization process and globalization has endangering traditional textile which put in place intangible culture heritage (ICH) of weaving tradition dramatically decrease over years. Rapid of changing process has impact on change of people lifestyles and resulted traditional practice of handcraft lose slowly. In order to safeguard local knowledge, government played significant role on develop ICH policy and its legal framework implementation associate with international standard.

Engaging the youth in the safeguarding and promotion of intangible cultural heritage has been a priority for intangible cultural heritage experts in the Republic of South Korea. In the present research, I therefore seek to briefly examine the issue of youth engagement in Korean intangible cultural heritage system through the lens of critical theory of youth engagement. By examining current programs developed and implemented for, with and by the youth, I would like to identify the dynamics that inform the engagement of young people in the safeguarding and promotion of Korean intangible cultural heritage. Among many other things, I argue that, the youth-adult relationship significantly influences both the operation and outcome of the existing programs. And in a broader sense, such evolving relationship should be understood as manifestation of the symbolic dynamics currently informing the operation of intangible cultural heritage system in the Republic of South Korea as well as the expected outcomes of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding and promotion.

The consumption of vitamins and minerals is essential to endure the harsh winters of Korea. Today, we can easily buy fresh vegetables at a supermarket, even in winter. But in times before greenhouses and imported agricultural products, how did our ancestors obtain vegetables? In the past, people salted vegetables in the autumn and consumed them through midwinter until the following spring. The famous Korean dish kimchi, made using a fermentation method, is a representative example of these preserved vegetables.