Bang (Korean)

Bang
Hangul
Hanja
Revised Romanization	bang
McCune–Reischauer	pang or bang

Bang is a romanization of the Korean word 방, meaning "room". In a traditional Korean house, a sarangbang (Hangul: 사랑방; Hanja: 舍廊房) is the study or drawing room, for example.

In modern Korea (especially in the South), the concept of a bang has expanded and diversified from being merely a walled segment in a domestic space, to including buildings or enterprises in commercial, urban, space, such as a PC bang (an internet café), a noraebang (a karaoke room), sojubang (a soju room, i.e. a pub), manhwabang (a manhwa room, where people read or borrow manhwa) and a jjimjilbang (elaborate Korean public bathhouse). This can be compared with the similar expansion of the concept of a "house" to include upper houses, opera houses, coffee houses, and publishing houses.

Phonetically more tensed word ppang (빵) is used as an abbreviation of a noun gambang (Hangul: 감방; Hanja: 監房; McCune-Reischauer: kambang), meaning "jail".

Traditional Korean sarangbang (study room). Exterior, in the British Museum Department of Asia.

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