Malaysia is a developing nation of Southeast Asia. A few of their famous slogans reflect the diversity of its present ethnic groups in terms of language, customs and traditions inherited from past generations, ‘One Malaysia‘ and ‘Malaysia Truly Asia‘. Malaysia’s cultural fusion is the result of immigration, trade and cultural exchanges over many centuries with Arab nations, China, and India, where the arrival of the first foreigners brought along with them their wealth as well as their cultural heritage and religion. Presently, these ethnic groups still maintain their cultural traditions, but managed to come together to develop Malaysia’s unique and contemporary diverse heritage.

Tugging rituals and games survived in Ukraine from different epochs, keeping a deep ethnological sense and didactic use. Through decades and centuries, tugging traditions, which later formed the basis of different sport competitions and educational exercises related to tugging, have been modified, reflecting changed environments and social demands. As a rule, they constituted an important part of rural street (open-air) life and entertainment as well as public festivals associated with calendar or religious holidays, like Kolodiy, Masliana, and Stritennia (Pancake Week, Shrovetide, and Candlemas Day, respec-tively) and Midsummer Day, Christmas, Easter holidays. A lot of popular customs from pre-Christian (pagan) times passed to the Christian holidays and have continued until now. Obviously, as a recognized researcher of folk life, V. Skurativsky, wrote, the ethnographic term “street” to mean the ancient traditional form of youth entertain-ment that originated from the places of young people’s meetings.

Cultural heritage is not limited to archaeological sites, monuments, and collections of objects. It includes tradi- tions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as ceremonies, rituals, performing arts, beliefs about the world, and enactment prac- tices. While these expressions may not be tangible, they are a continuously evolving form of living tradition, recreated and adapted in response to the environment around us. They provide us with a sense of identity, a feeling of belonging, and an inclusive, representative, collective way of expressing culture.

Singapore is a culturally diverse society and one of the most religiously diverse nations of the world, and the understanding of cultural practices aids in fostering dialogue and social cohesion in such a social context. This paper discusses the important role of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in fostering a deeper appreciation of the commonalities and differences among people, particularly in an era where societies around the world are facing complex effects of social diversity, movements of people and the effects of globalisation. It highlights the efforts to safeguard ICH in Singapore through partnerships between government agencies, educational institutions and the community.

With the change of the times, forms of arts including dance also change and develop according to the conditions of each district. Usually these changes are influenced by political, economic, and social factors.

In reality, safeguarding ICH (or whatever term one uses)1 has been an important issue for the large majority of countries around the globe and their citizens long before the 2003 Convention was adopted. The ‘problem’ of ICH, therefore, was a lack of formal international recognition of this reality and a cultural heritage protection paradigm that prioritised monumental European cultural forms over local and indigenous ones and that, when it addressed traditional culture, it did so from a heavily researcher-oriented viewpoint. The experience of those countries that are Parties to the 2003 Convention shows clearly that ICH in all its various forms is a rich social and, often, economic and even political resource that provides a variety of possible routes towards sustainable models of development. This variety is determined by many social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors and is itself part of the invaluable diversity of this form of heritage.

Since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was initiated in 1946 to promote world peace and development based on international understanding and cooperation, there have been continuous efforts to safeguard cultural heritage of humanity. However, it is undeniable that tangible cultural heritage, which includes natural and cultural heritage, received greater emphasis than intangible heritage. The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted in 2003 in Paris ("2003 Convention" hereinafter) is regarded as a milestone that changed the historical perception and marked a turning point.

In light of UNESCO’s mission to overcome conflicts of the Cold War through cooperation in education, science and culture for peace and development, inter-Korean cooperation in intangible heritage and its contribution to peace on the Korean peninsula is a pertinent field that ties in with UNESCO ideals. As we hope for improvement in inter-Korean politics paving the way for future cooperation, let’s examine the considerations necessary for inter-Korean cooperation, as well as potential areas of cooperation.

“Borderless cultural heritage”is the result of the perpetual transmission and dissemination of culture, intercultural exchange, and migration of peoples throughout human history. The view that a country constitutes a culture (heritage) and national borders serve as cultural borders is in line with a modern nationalistic perspective, which may not accurately reflect reality when considering diverse characteristics of culture. This is even more true for intangible cultural heritage (ICH), which is viable only when it is practiced by individuals or communities, than for tangible cultural heritage. Therefore, it seems obvious that transborder cooperation among communities and countries is critical to the safeguarding and transmission of ICH.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) refers to the non-physical aspects of cultural heritage. We can preserve tangible cultural heritage, such as buildings and artifacts, to pass them down to the next generation. It is, however, difficult to determine what specifically should be preserved when it comes to ICH. Generally, ICH elements are selected and then practitioners of the arts or skills are designated to preserve and transmit the elements. The essence of ICH preservation, therefore, is to transmit the arts and skills of ICH from people to people and from generation to generation.

This Webinar Series begins with an assessment of the impacts of COVID-19 on intangible cultural heritage (ICH), considerably identifying the possible roles ICH might take in critical times. As the pandemic has been disrupting many forms of cultural practices, the effects of which worsen the vulnerability of the stewards of heritage, the first session intends to hold a discussion toward innovative solutions for ICH safeguarding and transmission during a time of global crisis and social unrest.

Since Korea has undergone the fierce contemporary history through the Japanese colonial era and the Korean War, the Korean government enacted the Cultural Heritage Protection Act in 1962 for safeguarding and transmitting Korean cultural heritage. In this act, the term intangible cultural heritage (ICH) was officially coined as a legal concept, and provisions were prepared to designate and safeguard ICH at the national level. Thus, the Korean legal system for safeguarding ICH was established forty years before the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003).