Toeing the Line for Good Business

Having read that the Hmong tribespeople from Laos walked barefoot in their own homes, the folklorist worried that her red toenail polish might be off-putting when she interviewed an immigrant Hmong family at their house. She knew that red had connotations of blood and danger. During the Vietnam War, if a Hmong soldier dreamed about red before being sent to the front, he would request a delay.

The folklorist settled for a shade of beige and when she reached the Hmong home and saw the shoes gathered on the front steps, she felt satisfied that she was prepared. She removed her shoes, stepped inside and discovered that everyone else was wearing shoes.

She had been misinformed. Her hosts laughed with her about the mistake, but when she revealed that she had changed the color of her toenail polish, they agreed with her. Red would have been a problem.

Some people might criticize the folklorist and say, “They’re in our country now. Let them learn our ways.” However, the folklorist was seeking information. Why do anything that might cause the interview to sour?

Business commonly adapts to its ethnic customers. Last year, an investment company offered Vietnamese clients free phone calls to Vietnam during the Vietnamese New Year. A real estate agent advertised a condo for $188,800 in a Chinese neighborhood where residents believe that eight is the most fortuitous number. At a fund-raiser for the future Museum of Chinese American History, banquet tickets cost $88 and valet parking $8.80.

Folklorist Norine Dresser is the author of “Multicultural Manners” (Wiley, 1996). Contact her through Voices or by e-mail: norined@earthlink.net