Korean Nail Shop Culture in New York City

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국문화인류학회
· 수록지 정보 : 한국문화인류학 / 46권 / 3호 / 261 ~ 306페이지
· 저자명 : 한정우

초록

This study attempts to analyze Korean nail salon culture in New York City.
Korean-owned nail salons have evolved into one of the signature icons of the city,becoming an easily recognizable symbol on nearly every city block. Korean nail salons are a unique case of the‘ ethnic economy’run by Korean women, who serve women of other ethnicities. The salons are places where Korean nail workers stand in the forefront of customer service, and where they have a great deal of contact with people from other racial and ethnic backgrounds, not only physically but also emotionally and conversationally. The intensity and intimacy of interaction is what most differentiates the Korean nail salon from other Korean immigrant-run businesses such as green groceries or cleaners. Furthermore, the nature of nail salon work as“ servicing the body”is particularly salient given the shameful feelings about body related work among Korean women. Thus their work raises questions about how this shame-embedded bodily work is performed, and what kinds of relationships are forged between Korean nail women and their clients that are played out through a specific shop culture.
Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this article examines how gendered relations are played out, and interracial hierarchies and distinctions are created and maintained in the Korean nail salons by analyzing the nail shop culture.
This project is based on a comparative research of three substantially different segments of nail service clientele: upper middle-class whites, working-class blacks and the varied racial groups of suburbia. In performing nail salon services, a Korean woman not only attends to the physical comfort and aesthetics of the customers’appearance, but also engages in complex relations with customers through which she is constantly challenging, accommodating, and / or reinforcing the status quo hierarchical structure of the dominant society.
The nail salon commodifies physical contact between Korean nail workers and customers of diverse backgrounds and this touching evokes intense feelings among nail women. Conflicts surrounding the use of native language, adaptation of an American nickname by the Korean nail salon worker, and the allocation and reception of tips reflect some of the tensions that arise out of servicing other women’s bodies. However, these tensions are not overtly expressed, but are embedded in the services provided.

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