ABSTRACT
The South Korean government tried to construct the increasingly essentialised and controlled communication of the national narrative directed towards South Korean society, especially from the 1970s. A high-ranking government official mentioned that “large-scale investment of the government budget in the national museum was for giving Korean nationals pride as a civilised ethnic nation.” Most mass media’s positive appraisal of the renovation showed to what extent South Korean society has internalised the nationalistic perspective on the interpretation of material culture and its history. National Museum of Korea (NMK) explained the purpose and vision of the programmes: NMK is working on diverse social education programmes in order to provide nationals in general with changes in lifelong education, and to instil cultural consciousness into them through correct understandings of our indigenous tradition and history. As suggested in Director Han’s address on the reopening of NMK in 1986, NMK focused on the museum education programmes after the reopening.
