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Two women, virtual strangers, sit hand-in-hand across a narrow table, both intent on the same thing-achieving the perfect manicure. Encounters like this occur thousands of times across the United States in nail salons increasingly owned and operated by Asian immigrants. This study looks closely for the first time at these intimate encounters, focusing on New York City, where such nail salons have become ubiquitous. Drawing from rich and compelling interviews, Miliann Kang takes us inside the nail industry, asking such questions as: Why have nail salons become so popular? Why do so many Asian women, and Korean women in particular, provide these services? Kang discovers multiple motivations for the manicure-from the pampering of white middle class women to the artistic self-expression of working class African American women to the mass consumption of body-related services. Contrary to notions of beauty service establishments as spaces for building community among women, The Managed Hand finds that while tentative and fragile solidarities can emerge across the manicure table, they generally give way to even more powerful divisions of race, class, and immigration.

Asian Americans - Social conditions. --- Asian Americans -- Social conditions. --- Beauty culture - Social aspects - United States. --- Beauty culture -- Social aspects -- United States. --- Beauty shops - Social aspects - United States. --- Beauty, Personal - Social aspects - United States. --- Korean American women - Employment - United States. --- Korean American women -- Employment -- United States. --- Manicuring - Social aspects - United States. --- United States - Race relations. --- United States -- Race relations. --- Women immigrants - Employment - United States. --- Women immigrants -- Employment -- United States. --- Beauty culture --- Korean American women --- Women immigrants --- Asian Americans --- Art, Architecture & Applied Arts --- Arts & Crafts --- Social aspects --- Employment --- Social conditions --- Immigrant women --- Immigrants --- Women, Korean American --- Women --- Cosmetology --- Beauty, Personal --- Beauty shops --- Cosmetics --- Nail art (Manicuring) --- Manicuring --- Body art --- Nail designs (Manicuring) --- Nails (Anatomy) --- Care and hygiene --- african american women. --- art. --- asian american. --- asian immigrants. --- asian women. --- beauty service work. --- body services. --- body. --- class differences. --- consumption. --- divisions of race. --- ethnography. --- gender issues. --- gender. --- immigrant workers. --- interviews. --- korean women. --- manicures. --- nail industry. --- nail salons. --- new york city. --- nonfiction. --- pampering. --- race issues. --- self care. --- self expression. --- service careers. --- social science. --- united states. --- white middle class women. --- women. --- working class.