English names for cultural heritage fixed

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Friday announced a set of guidelines for the Romanization of the names of cultural assets that will kick off from New Year’s Day.

The authorities decided to Romanize the whole Korean name then add the English meaning, despite the inevitable overlapping.

For instance, Gyeongbokgung will be noted as Gyeongbokgung Palace even though “gung” means “palace” in Korean. Bukhansan also will be written as Bukhansan Mountain though “san” overlaps with the word “mountain.”

In the cases of intangible cultural assets or books, the full Korean name will be Romanized and the English explanation will follow in parenthesis. For example, the tales of the three ancient kingdoms on the Korean Peninsula will be named “Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms)” and the traditional circle dance will be written, “Ganggangsullae (Circle Dance).” If multiple principles collide, the ones that are used wider will be followed, the state agency said.

The CHA is planning to release a guidebook containing the Romanized names of 4,000 state-registered cultural heritages by March next year. The signposts at tourist attractions and others will be gradually revised by 2018.

The announcement came as criticisms mounted over different Romanization adopted by different organizations confused ordinary citizens as well as foreigners.

For example, the Daeungjeon, the main service building at Buddhist temples, had different notations by different organizations ― the Korean Tourism Organization called it either Daeungjeong Hall or Hall of Sakyamuni while the Korea Foundation said it is the Hall of the Great Veneration and the Seoul City Hall named it Hall of Sakyamuni.

Since 2010, the administration has been collecting the use of Romanization for all cultural assets around the country, held roundtable meetings of experts, surveys among foreigners and others to come with a uniformed notation.

“We expect the new system to show that the original form of Korean will be prioritized. It is also expected to ease the promotion of Korean heritage,” the ministry said in a press release.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)