Red name pens, the scourge of Korea

In my school there are a lot of red felt-tipped pens. I carry some around in my pen/marker/candy bucket.

Last week, I gave a class some new books, and proceeded to walk around the room, red pen in hand, ready to write names on books. I got a lot of "No thanks, teacher" and "No, teacher" as I walked by each desk and attempted to write students' names on their books. Students pulled out black pens of their own and began writing their names on the books, so I figured they either liked their own handwriting or didn't like the look of red on the new pink books.

One student showed up to class late, so I wrote his name on a book with my red pen and then handed it to him. After a minute or so, I saw that there was something going on in his area of the room, and I asked him what was wrong.

"Teacher," he said, holding up his book. "Red. My name!"

"Yeah, so?" I was about to say, and then it hit me. The shocked look on the faces of his surrounding classmates, and the choking motion he was making kind of gave it away: Koreans (and perhaps other Asians too) think that if you write a name in red, it's the same as putting a death wish on that person.

"Oh," I said to the class, and everyone knew that I finally understood what I was doing when I was offering to write their names in red. I said "Oh" a couple more times and "I see" to get the point across.

By then a full-fledged effort to erase what I had done was underway. I pulled the book away and erased it myself and gave it back to the student. He took his hands away from his neck (they'd been clenched around it ever since I'd given him the book) and breathed a sigh of visible relief.

At that point I took my red erasable marker and began writing my name on the board in as many different styles as I could think of. My students began shouting "No Teacher!" and as many forms of "Don't do it!" as they could think of without ever actually saying it right.

I left my handiwork up on the board throughout class. I'm not sure if my students got the point I was trying to make, that superstitions are nonsense. I'm sure most of them thought I was just being really brave or really stupid.

After class, I realized another ridiculous thing that hadn't occurred to me before: Why are red pens even sold in Korea? Especially these pens, as the words "Name Pens" are printed on the box and on every single pen?