30 x 3 virgin remy: $200 OBO

30 x 3 virgin remy: $200 OBO is an experimental dance short film, and craigslist ad, following Hoàng’s memories of her auntie’s long hair and how it came to be a symbol of luxury and malevolence in rural Vietnam. Auntie was the only family member who accepted Hoàng’s parents’ forbidden mixed Teochew / Vietnamese marriage. After their father was imprisoned by the Communist party and their mother was banned from bringing her mixed heritage children into her parents’ home, Auntie generously took Hoàng and her siblings in. Six year old Hoàng and her siblings were forced to perform child labor to support their livelihood through bamboo weaving and sugar cane foraging on Auntie’s farm.

Movement and music follow the story’s disjointed narration that is common to many immigrants’ stories of the past. It took Hoàng more than 45 years to accept, recall, and feel comfortable to share these fragmented memories. Ten years after growing it out, the dancer is advertising their virgin (no chemicals) and remy (cut and tied in its natural direction) hair for sale to raise funds for Hoàng’s oldest sister, the only sibling who could not make it out of Vietnam after the war.