By Vinh Nguyen, The Brandeis Hoot
Happy Hands poster
“The nail industry is composed of up to 45 to 50 percent of Vietnamese immigrants,” Honey Lauren estimates, tucking a long strand of her curly hair behind her ear. Taking a pause to reposition her crossed legs, Lauren––the director of “Happy Hands”––proceeds, “and less than one percent of them know this story.”
The story Lauren mentions is the narrative of how Vietnamese Americans and immigrants have found a huge economic niche in the nail industry. According to “Nails” magazine, a publication within the trade, there are more than 8,000 nail salons in California alone—80 percent of them owned and operated by Vietnamese Americans. Nationwide, 45 percent of all licensed manicurists are of Vietnamese heritage.
Not only do the Vietnamese work in the nail industry, they also dominate it. The origin of how they have become so highly represented in the nail industry, however, is not a common story. For precisely this reason, actress and filmmaker Honey Lauren sought to explore the underpinnings that have led to this economic-cultural phenomenon in her short documentary “Happy Hands.”
Presented and hosted by the Brandeis Asian American Student Association (BAASA), the 20-minute documentary was screened in the ICC last Friday night, followed by a special Q&A with Lauren herself. Although initially appearing to be a story about the nail industry, the charm of “Happy Hands” comes from the fact that it’s actually not about the industry at all. Rather, using first-person narrative that is interspersed with interviews, the short film attempts to snapshot the experiences of Vietnamese immigrants transitioning into this country after the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The key players in this tale are the Vietnamese immigrants themselves, the idea of the American Dream and perhaps unexpectedly, a young Hollywood starlet, Tippi Hedren.
The documentary opens by introducing Laura, a Vietnamese immigrant who moved to Los Angeles where she works in her aunt’s nail salon. From there, Laura recounts her story of coming to America and finding work in the industry. Along the way, Laura’s story breaks off with interviews of prominent people who have impacted the development of the Vietnamese nail community, such as Tam Nguyen.
Read the full article by Vinh Nguyen from the Brandeis Hoot.
