When we talk about a country's cultural heritage, we tend to view it only as monuments such as the pyramids in Egypt or Gyeongbokgung in Korea. In fact, it also includes the living traditions of people such as oral storytelling, performing arts, rituals, and festivals. These are a country's intangible cultural heritage. An understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of different societies will promote cultural diversity and encourage respect for other ways of life. That is why UNESCO is devoted to preserving important intangible cultural traditions around the world. The following cases of intangible cultural heritage, designated by UNESCO, share two common features: They are all performing arts and they are related to the lives of ordinary people.

Have you happened to watch a lady in a long red dress dancing passionately to the tunes of musical instruments? That's flamenco, one of the cultural symbols that represent Spain. It began in Andalusia in southern Spain, where the local gypsy cultures are known to have played a great role in developing the performing art. Flamenco is an artistic expression fusing song, dance, and musicianship. Singers express all kinds of feelings and situations through expressive words. The art of guitar playing is also an essential element in flamenco. It requires excellent guitar skills. But the most exciting part of flamenco is dancing. Flamenco dancing is a very emotional dance style, with the dancer always trying to express his or her emotions through movement. Sharp movements and facial expressions play a greater role in this style of dance than in many others. The dancers may clap their hands, tap their feet, snap castanets, or move their body suddenly to show the desired emotion. Flamenco is performed during religious festivals, rituals, and at private celebrations. It is the most important display of the intangible cultural heritage of southern Spain.

You are familiar with puppet shows, aren't you? Puppet shows have always been popular across the world. There is, however, something special about puppet shows in Turkey. In the popular puppet theater in Turkey, the puppets are not clearly visible. Rather, they are shadowy. Shadow puppet theater is known to have been very popular with the public between the 17th and 19th centuries in Turkey. Puppet figures in the shadow theater are made of camel hide in the shape of people or things. They are held on rods in front of a light to cast their shadows onto a cotton screen. Karagöz is a good example of shadow puppet theater in the country. It depicts the history of Turkey and its people who have diverse social and ethnic backgrounds.

The stories of Karagöz are usually comic and feature the two main characters: Karagöz, an uneducated but trustworthy man, and Hacivat, an educated, gentle friend of Karagöz. Other characters also appear depending on the themes of the play. The puppets are manipulated by a puppet master. He skillfully turns the puppets into real persons through performing the roles of all the characters with songs and spoken parts. Once performed widely at public squares, Karagöz is found today mostly in performance halls. The traditional puppet theater strengthens the cultural identity of the Turkish people and brings them closer together through entertainment.

When you travel to Mexico, you will easily come across a group of musicians wearing traditional local costumes and special hats called "sombreros." These musicians are mariachi performers. Mariachi is traditional Mexican music and a basic element of Mexican culture. It dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. A traditional mariachi group is made up of two or more members, playing a wide range of songs on musical instruments. The mariachi band uses violins, trumpets, guitars, and traditional Mexican instruments. Their performance includes typical Mexican songs with various themes, including love affairs and stories of heroic battles. Mariachi is the music of the common people, and the skill of playing mariachi is usually passed down from fathers to sons through performance at festivals and at religious and civil events. Mariachi music emphasizes the value of respect for the natural heritage of the regions of Mexico including local history.

In any Korean folk village, if you are lucky, you can enjoy the cheerful and exciting sounds of traditional Korean musical instruments, like gongs and drums, played by a group of professional entertainers dressed in farmers' clothes. It is one of the parts of namsadangnori. Namsadangnori, meaning a "male traveling clown theater," is a folk performance tradition practiced by traveling entertainers. It is not known exactly when namsadang entertainers and their performances came into being. People generally agree that it began late in the Joseon Dynasty. Namsadangnori is entertainment for the commoners. It is comprised of six components: farmers' music, a mask dance, tightrope walking, a puppet play, acrobatics, and plate spinning.

The show fascinates the audience with lively music, cheerful dance, delicate acrobatic performances, skillful puppet plays, and comic speeches. This is why namsadangnori is considered a fun and comprehensive form of entertainment. In addition to entertaining audiences, traditionally namsadangnori carried an important social message. The mask dance and puppet plays in particular depicted the difficult lives of ordinary people during the Joseon Dynasty. Through comic performances, the entertainers raised issues on behalf of ordinary people and tried to realize the ideals of equality and freedom. Representing the joyful excitement of the Korean people, namsadangnori keeps its tradition alive through the performances of professional entertainers across the country.