State aid for Korean go

[John Fairbairn]

Korean go from 31 May 2011 can look forward to a presumably renewable state subsidy of one billion won (just under one million US dollars). The subsidy is for the popularisation of go, not for tournament prizes. Precise activities do not seem to be spelled out yet, but they will come under the umbrella of go as culture. Domestically it seems that there is a desire to strengthen the identity of Korean go, but there are rubrics for multiculturalism and strengthening of international go. Myeongji University will apparently take the lead, but under the direction of the Hanguk Giwon.

It's possibly not quite as sugar and spice as it sounds. There have been two factions in Korean go vying for domestic funds in the past few years. It's not clear if they have now come together. Probably they have (otherwise the government would have held back), but if not it looks like the one that is responsible for amateurs may have lost the upperhand a little. Given that expenditure will have to be justified to the government, internationally it may also mean a fresh effort to get us all to say jeongseok instead of joseki. But a million bucks is still better than a poke in the eye.

It's ironic that in long-time capitalist Japan and Korea, go is now getting state aid (counting the Nihon Ki-in's new charity status as aid), whereas in still communist China the government has been trying to wean go players off the state and let filthy capitalist running dog lackeys take up the slack - successfully it seems!

[snorri]

So I guess you are saying we don't have much idea how the money will be spent. But it's 10x the AGA income, so, yeah. Not bad.

[gowan]

Does this have anything to do with offering pros an additional source of income now that game fees have been eliminated?

[hailthorn011]

Sounds pretty cool in my opinion. It'd be nice if strong players, i.e. Pros) could become household names with more than just a niche crowd.

[tchan001]

wonder if all the free resources on wbaduk site are results of the funding