ABSTRACT
Cultural policy is not only 'shaped, mediated, and channelled by the history, tradition, and institutional arrangements' but it also evolves in line with political, economic and social changes of any given country. This chapter suggests that, within the Korean context, cultural policy in its modern sense was a product of colonialism. Colonial cultural policy shifted significantly when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out as the government utilised culture to advocate state ideologies and boost Koreans' loyalty to Japan. The United States military government had little knowledge of Korean culture and no clear plan for cultural policy to the extent that 'culture was an afterthought of an afterthought'. It is unsurprising that the discourse of culture in post-liberation Korea was preoccupied with the idea of 'national culture'. Koreans viewed national culture as a prerequisite for their nationhood: it was an essential condition for the existence and survival of Korea as a nation, and its development was crucial for national prosperity.
