Manggŏn as intangible heritage

Wearing a manggŏn was a common sight at the end of the Chosŏn dynasty. The manggŏn industry was doing well: headbands made of horsehair were mass-produced in different provinces of the realm. At the end of the 19th century, however, big changes happened in Korean society. One of them was cutting off the top knots. The emperor published the Royal Edict to Cut the Topknot (단발령 斷髮令) on the 30th of December 1895. Following this decree, many heads were left bereft of flowy hair, so people mostly stopped wearing manggŏn.

While this craft has been perpetuated until today, manggŏn making is a dying skill. Therefore, the skilled manggŏn makers, also called manggŏn-jang, have been appointed as honorary Intangible Cultural Property No. 66 since 1980.https://ncms.nculture.org/market/story/3468 This means that the government sends stipends to appointed manggŏn-jang so that they continue the craft and pass it down to future generations. The few manggŏn-jang left have mostly learned these skills from their parents and try to hand this tradition down to the next generation. This is done, for example, by exhibiting their creations to keep the traditional headband alive. An example of a manggŏn-jang is Kang Jeon-hyang (1943-), the daughter of the previous title holder, Lee Soo-yeo (1923-2020). Other than Kang, Yang Jin-suk is still actively promoting the craft through the Korea Annual Traditional Handcraft Art Exhibitionhttps://m.korea.kr/expertWeb/resources/files/data/document_file/2006/2006_intangibleculturalassets_exhibition.pdf and classes at Hanyang University.