Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the ‘Globalization of Korean Food’ Project initiated by the Korean government, and examine its construction of imagination and framings ‘traditional Korean food’. I focus on how the Korean government uses food as a way to globalize the Korean brand - a form of national branding, and how they promote Korean food via both commercial and cultural strategies.
The Korean government started the ‘Globalization of Korean Food’ Project in 2009 in order to support the Korean food industry, and began to develop human resources, standardize recipes, develop selection criteria for restaurants, and register Korean food as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage item. The Korean Food Foundation was established in order to achieve these goals in 2010, with participation from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Korea Tourism Organization, food research institutes, and the tourist industry. It aims to promote Korean cuisine worldwide.
There are three major themes to be analyzed in this paper: Firstly, why and how did the Korean government promote ‘Globalization of Korean Food’ Project? Secondly, what are the major framings about Korean food in this project? And finally, what are the images of ‘Korean national cuisine’ promoted by this project?
Through this investigation, we examine the constructions and framings of contemporary Korean national cuisine, and analyze how the state uses food as a tool for national branding. Food is used to construct collective identity, as well as to enhance commercial benefits. In the process of constructing food discourse, it also reveals ‘one ethnic-cultural’ ideology and a lack of cultural diversity.