SEMINAR: Asian Studies Seminar Series, Seminar 1 2017

This talk draws on a small scale pilot study which focused on identifying some key themes relating to appearance, attractiveness and belonging, and which were considered important for young Asian Australian men and women. Some existing literature on appearance and belonging in Australia and other Western diasporic contexts has suggested that young people of Asian descent are more likely to feel dissatisfied with their appearance than their white Australian peers. Moreover, some recent media reporting has asserted that Asian Australian women in particular are tempted to ‘deracialise’ their bodies through cosmetic surgery, in order to better conform to what such media representations describe as mainstream white beauty ideals in Australia. The findings of this research suggest that while media may have had some influence on the participants’ ideas of attractiveness and desirable beauty, their personal perceptions of attractive appearance were informed by much broader multicultural notions of desirable appearance, which may draw on various transnational sources, but without negating the participants’ sense of belonging to Australia.