Don’t Put A Ring On It

Are we finally getting to a place where it’s safe to be single?

If it sounds like an antiquated question in the year 2020, it’s not. Stories about cultural and family pressures on young women to wed remain as common as ever, despite how much progress women have made socially and culturally. It’s particularly interesting in Asia, where conversations about challenging traditional expectations of women are happening in China, Korea, Japan and pretty much everywhere.

“A lot more people are thinking marriage is not the solution for their lives,” says Frances Cha, a former travel and culture editor for CNN in Seoul and Hong Kong,, centres on four young women in South Korea who defy such social norms in an environment where appearances are everything. (An excerpt from the book and a Q&A with the author appear on the following pages.) “Or because they are marrying later, there is a lot more freedom for women who do not prioritise marriage.”