A Study on Backgrounds and Characteristics of Folk Village Formation Based on Cases of Traditional Villages in Korea and China

Traditional settlements completed from long socio-cultural living environment elements can be considered as organic bodies accomplished by multiplicative factors, and they are historical products that reflect ethnic identity and particularity from the historical and cultural aspects. Especially Korea and China, which had close cultural and political exchanges based on Confucian ideology due to geographical accessibility, have ambiguous boundary on traditional culture originated from lifestyles and institutional homogeneity. Therefore, this study is intended to identify features by comparing and reviewing homogeneity and differences of Korea and China targeting traditional folk villages registered to major heritages. For the research, six traditional folk villages of Korea and China with the level of UNESCO cultural heritages are selected, and they are compared and analyzed based on contents acquired through literature research and field survey. While traditional folk villages in Korea try to conserve the traditional features as they are in the situation that local residents still live, those in China try to maintain and conserve the historical values instead of residence. In regards to this perspective, there should be development and studies on various conservation methods of Korean traditional folk villages about asset valuing that originates from peculiarity of representing regions like China does.