I don’t

“PLAN B”, a guidebook for unmarried women living in Seoul, the South Korean capital, begins with a test. “Have your parents chided you for wanting to live alone?” “Are you often told that a woman’s best chance of happiness is being a wife and mother?” Too many noes will land the reader in the “soft tofu” category—unprepared for the rigours of life as a single woman in socially conservative South Korea. (Other types include thick-skinned “watermelon” and die-hard “walnut”.)

The guide, put together last year by the Seoul metropolitan government and the Unni Network, a women’s organisation, and distributed in 600 offices and public places, offers tips for staying safe, good reads on living solo and information on dining clubs for young singles. The proportion of single people in Seoul more than doubled between 1990 and 2010, and they now account for 16% of households. Four in ten South Korean adults are unmarried, the highest share among the 34 OECD countries. In Seoul over a third of women with degrees are single.