I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Debut novel dissects materialism, social mobility
This photo grabbed from her website shows Frances Cha, author of “If I Had Your Face.” It is her debut novel. / Photo from Frances Cha website
By Kang Hyun-kyung
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Frances Cha's debut novel “If I Had Your Face” reveals the brutal side of a materialistic society where people judge others by their looks and wealth.
It describes a society obsessed with looks and its social ramifications ― attractive physical appearance matters but it alone doesn't necessarily lead to the dramatic transformation of one's life.
In a materialistic society, the book hints that there is a caste-like social stratification in place, which fends off gold-diggers. In such a society, social mobility is long gone and marriage is no longer a tool to make it happen, no matter how attractive you might be.
Cha wisely uses local vernacular, such as “room salon” (a kind of bar that employs the prettiest girls in the industry to sit and drink with customers), “seon” (blind dates arranged by parents) and even “han,” as a literary device to make her novel sound realistic to readers who are familiar with Korea. The Korean American writer defines the term han as “the pent-up rage from all the pillaged generations.”
On top of these merits, the critical device that made her novel sound Korean comes from her meticulous, well-thought-out use of storylines that altogether assert there is no such thing as a modern-day Cinderella.
In “If I had Your Face,” four female protagonists ― Ara, Kyuri, Miho and Wonna ―narrate in turn their upbringings and relationships. They all have humble, if not unfortunate, backgrounds: Ara is a mute hairstylist who lost her voice in a tragic incident that occurred when she was a teenager; Kyuri was raised by a single mother who is a vendor in a market; Miho spent her childhood years at an orphanage and Wonna, the only married woman among the four, lived with her abusive grandmother.
All the girls, except Wonna, are in doomed relationships.
Unbeknownst to herself, Kyuri, a room salon girl, finds herself in love with her client, a business mogul. He has fun with Kyuri but later treats her like “an untouchable” who dares to beg for his love. His “inhuman treatment” of her continues after she shows up in a hotel where he and his parents are set to meet his future bride and her parents. His frantic reaction makes Kyuri miserable.
“I never would have thought I would end up like this, still with no money to speak of, a body that is breaking down and an imminent expiration date,” she says.
Kyuri's shattered dream of being his wife disproves her firm belief that her destiny would change if she improved her looks.
“If I Had Your Face” will be released by Penguin Random House in May 2020.
She is the product of Dr. Shim, the renowned head doctor of a plastic surgery clinic in the posh southern Seoul district of Gangnam. Upon her request, Dr. Shim gave Kyuri her current face modeled after Candy, a K-pop idol.
Kyuri believes if she has Candy's look, she can do anything. “I wanted to reach over and shake her by the shoulders. Stop running around like a fool, I wanted to say. You have so much and you can do anything you want,” Kyuri tells herself as she happens to sit next to Candy at the clinic.
Her roommate Miho, a talented artist, considers herself a different species.
“Kyuri also suffers from persecution mania. This is entirely my own and secret opinion. She sees herself as the victim of men, of the room salon industry, of Korean society, of the government. She never questions her own judgment, or how she creates and wallows in these situations,” Miho narrates.
She looks down on Kyuri for her excessive plastic surgery procedures and becomes judgmental when she learns about her shattered daydream of marrying her client.
Despite her unfortunate childhood, Miho's life makes a dramatic turn after she is fortunate enough to be chosen as a winner of a fellowship that will sponsor her at an art school in New York.
There, she meets her super-rich boyfriend through their mutual friend.
Her feeling of superiority over her roommate, however, turns out to be baseless. She ends up falling victim to the social hierarchy. Her wealthy, gentle, caring boyfriend cheats on her and is bound to marry to a girl from a super-rich family.
Ara, meanwhile, is mesmerized with a K-pop star. She is anxious to meet him in person, and falls into despair after their disastrous first encounter.
“If I Had Your Face” explains that materialism begets a caste-like social stratification. In modern-day Korea, there is a solid social class system that is unbreakable. Marriage is an institution through which the upper classes maintain their socio-economic status through their children. For this reason, it is nearly impossible for love between members of different social classes to lead to marriage. And there is no such thing as a modern-day Cinderella who has lived happily ever after with her prince charming. Likewise, social class is hereditary. Thus, cultural exogamy appears to be a daydream or wishful thinking of those who are from the lower social classes.
Broadly, “If I Had Your Face” implies you can change your looks with the help of skillful plastic surgeons, but you can't escape your social class.
“If I Had Your Face” will be available in bookstores in May next year.