SEMINAR: Somatic Experiences of Ageing and Beauty Work Among Older Korean and Chinese Migrants

Over the past decade, a growing number of sociological research has sought to understand the role of beauty work in promoting positive ageing among older people. However, majority of these studies have been conducted in the Western context, and only a limited number of studies have focused on older people of Asian ancestry. In the West, ageing has often been theorised as a negative challenge to individual’s identity and agency; however, in many East Asian countries old age has, at least up until very recently, been considered a sign of greater understanding of the world, and therefore ageing has been perceived as a process to be celebrated. This project will explore the ways in which older Korean and Chinese migrants living in Western Australia experience their ageing bodies specifically in the context of their engagement with everyday beauty work. Focusing on their lived experiences of ‘doing beauty’ and engaging with everyday beauty practices, this project will contribute to the current body of knowledge by providing a general understanding of how ageing bodies are perceived and experienced, particularly how beauty work and aesthetic care of self intersect with notions of wellbeing and positive ageing in later life in migrant contexts.