Writing the book provided an opportunity to explore Korea’s cultural landscape in more depth while creating a story with Korean protagonists: something that Frances said she would have loved to read growing up but couldn’t, because those stories didn’t exist. Her time at CNN International, as a travel reporter covering South Korea and Hong Kong, was a rich training ground for writing and editing that also allowed Frances to gather plenty of source material, which made its way into If I Had Your Face. What remains can be easily understood within the context and definitely adds to the reading experience. While early drafts of the novel featured more Korean vocabulary - in conversation Frances says she and her friends move easily between Korean and English - this was edited out with the realisation that it could prevent readers from connecting with the book. I spoke to the author Frances Cha earlier this year about her desire to correct cultural misconceptions, dynamics within female friendships and Korea’s relationship with cosmetic surgery.įrances’ continent-hopping, well-travelled childhood - she was born in the U.S., moved to Hong Kong at 8, then to the Korean provinces at 12 before returning Stateside for university - proved to be excellent preparation for writing about Korean women in a novel destined for an Anglophone audience with patchy knowledge of contemporary Korea. Weaving their lives together with themes of unattainable beauty standards, traditional social codes, filial piety and terrible men makes for an enriching portrait of Korean society that will resonate with an international audience. More recently, the conversation has moved back to the positive, with praise for Korea’s collective efficiency in handling the health crisis when many countries have displayed more individualistic attitudes.Ī welcome tonic to this shifting attitude has arrived in the form of If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, whose debut novel is a compelling portrayal of five South Korean women living in current day Seoul. Within weeks, the situation had taken a turn due to the Coronavirus outbreak that saw a global spike in racism aimed at the east and south-east Asian communities. Korean culture started 2020 on a media high when Parasite scooped four wins at the Oscars ceremony.

If i had your face characters