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Background on Dance’s Korean names and nickname

the hangeul written vertically





Both the websites “Ask a Korean”
https://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/01/koreans-english-acquisition-and-best.html
and and Korean alphabet
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm

give the Korean alphabet’s proper name not as hangul, as in Wikipedia, but spelled as hangeul. The alphabet website also notes that text used to be written vertically, right to left like Chinese, but since 1988 has been written horizontally like Western scripts. [end of edit]

Another one of those rilly rilly spooky random Wiki thngs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancheong

Just a random Wiki suggestion on the opening page:

Can you see ‘Dancheong’ being mispronounced as ‘Dance’? what is “dance of knives” translated into korean? -Stellaaaaaah 9/20/08 12:45 PM I’ve got the hangul up there. Don’t know who it would be pronounced, though. IT’s so distinct to the guy that I’m not trying to argue with him about it…-Heather Gladney 9/20/08 1:23 PMa bit wikiheavy on this one too! -Heather Gladney 9/20/08 1:43 PM god no– it’s not like he asks for so much, anyway… I should be able to get a translation around here somewhere -Stellaaaaaah 9/20/08 1:55 PM I just asked babelfish to rend “Dance of Knives” into Korean, and it gave me the hangul characters, but not how it would be pronounced. -Heather Gladney 9/20/08 2:14 PM nice explanation you’ve addded in up there… -Stellaaaaaah 9/20/08 2:36 PM thank you! I’m grabbing around for whatever, and of course Emma jumps in!! -Heather Gladney 9/20/08 2:45 PM Not sure, but I think that “che” in the middle is a hard “ch” sound. Still, it reads like Dance, which matters a lot! And it is beautiful. -Jlwitwer 9/22/08 4:05 PM
.I was hearing it as a hard ch too. -Heather Gladney 9/22/08 11:38 PM

Also, note the association of colors to directions explained here, a question I believe came up earlier.

Dancheong refers to Korean traditional decorative coloring on wooden buildings and artifacts for the purpose of style. It literally means “cinnabar and blue-green” in Korean.[1] It is based on five basic colors; blue (east), white (west), red (south), black (north), and yellow (center).[2][3] Dancheong has various symbolic meanings. Dancheong also represented the social status and rank by using various patterns and colors. It functions not only for decoration, but also for practical purposes such as to protect building surfaces against temperature and to make the crudeness of materials less conspicuous. Applying dancheong on the surfaces of buildings require trained skills, and artisans called dancheongjang (단청장) design patterns and paint.[3][4][5]

Here’s another example, posted over on my lj by a friend visiting Korea:

The origin of dancheong can be traced from cave paintings and wall paintings which appeared more than 20,000 ago in the history of mankind, although they may be served for different purposes and functions from the stylized dancheong.[5]

In the 12th century document titled

Gaoli tujing

(

) which literally means “Illustrated Account of

Goryeo

” (918-1392), the Chinese author

Xu Jing

described the majestic apperance of Goryeo’s royal palaces as well as the luxurious

dancheong

on the places at that time. He said that Goryeo people liked building royal palaces and the structure of king’s residence was built with round

pillars

and a square

headpiece

. The colorfully adorned edge of the roof in connection looked like it flied to the sky.


You can’t just randomly grab a name from a phone book for unfamiliar ethnic groups. Wiki is telling me there is an entire web of knowledge embedded in Korean names, for instance. The Family name is associated with clans, and with locations. The traditional style of two-syllable given name has one syllable used as a generational marker, in the old days across an entire family–all the Kims in Korea, for instance, using one syllable the same in their given names. Children do tend to have rude nicknames, to protect them from evil spirits–and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahn_(Korean_name)

 

Ahn, also romanized An, is a Korean family name. It literally means “tranquility.” In 2000, there were 637,786 people bearing this surname in South Korea[1], making it the 20th most common family name in the country, with roughly 2% of the country’s population. North Korea does not release figures for surnames, but the percentage is expected to be similar.

For uses of similar surnames in other territories, see An.


Sunheung Clan (Dominant Clan)

The 2000 South Korean census counted 468,827 members of the “Sunheung” Ahn clan (순흥안씨, 順興安氏). Their ancestral seat is in modern-day Sunheung-myeon, in Yeongju, Kyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. They have enjoyed “blue-blood” status as nobility (Yang-Ban) since their earliest history in the Koryeo (Koryo) Dynasty and throughout the Yi Dynasty (July 1392 – August 1910). The founder of the Sunheung Ahn was a famously petty and meticulous official of Koryeo named Ahn Ja-mi. The Neo-Confucian philosopher An Hyang, who introduced the Confucian social and government system to Korea, was his great-grandson, and is generally numbered among the clan’s most illustrious members. During Colonial Japan and during the founding of the democratic government of Korea, the most influential and respected figure is Ahn Chang Ho (Title: Dosan) and his life ended shortly after his arrest and release by the Imperial Japanese Government.

Tracking down the clan seat’s location:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeongju

Yeongju is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.

Buseoksa Temple in Yeongju is outstanding as a representative temple of the Avatamsaka Sect of Silla Buddhism. Sosu Seowon is the first seowon (Confucian academy) to have had national financial support by way of tax exemptions.

Yeongju is also home to a large Novelis Aluminum plant, employing approximately 1000 workers. This plant provides flat-rolled aluminum sheet products to customers throughout Asia. [1]

Yeongju is home to voer 40 foreigners. They range from being English teachers to factory workers.

Yeongju is also home to an authentic western restaurant called Rave in the Hyucheon area.

In further pursuit of family names, I found something else pretty amazing. Bolding on text is mine. I just grabbed the name Ahn on a whim–and then through that, I found these folks. Don’t recall seeing anything on them before, might be lurking somewhre in my hindbrain… Okaaaay. Wiki-foo hits again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahn_Trio

The Ahn Trio are three Korean American sisters who make up a classical piano trio. Their names are Angella (violin), Lucia (piano) and Maria (cello). Lucia and Maria are twins.

They were trained at Juilliard in New York. They achieved widespread recognition in the United States in 1987 when TIME Magazine featured them in a cover story about “Asian-American Whiz Kids”. In 2003, they were selected by People Magazine as three of the “50 Most Beautiful People” and have been featured in Vogue, GQ and in ads for GAP and Anne Klein.

Lucia, Angella, and Maria thrive on dissolving the barriers between art forms. They have fused their work with that of dancers, pop singers, DJs, painters, installation artists, photographers, lighting designers, ecologists, and even kite makers. Most recently, they performed live at the Czech Grammys with the Tata Bojs, and received critical acclaim for their collaborative project with the David Parsons Dance Company.

Their first recording, of Ravel and Villa-Lobos trios, brought raves, such as Audio Magazine’s “this is one of Ravel’s best and never better played”, and the next, an EMI recording of trios by Dvorak, Suk, and Shostakovich, won Germany’s prestigious ECHO Award. A 1997 MTV appearance on Bryan Adams‘ “Unplugged” program led to the development of “Ahn-Plugged,” which typifies the excitement and energy of the Ahn Trio. Mostly recently, they have created their own label, L.A.M.P (Lucia Angella Maria Productions), to allow them greater freedom to further explore the new, cutting edge projects they have always pursued. It is precisely this vitality and commitment to innovation that has the Ahn Trio continually drawing new audiences to classical music…

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