Young Asian Dutch constructing Asianness Understanding the role of Asian popular culture

This doctoral thesis is about young Asian Dutch, panethnic Asian identities and identifications, and Asian/Asian Dutch popular culture. It addresses several pressing questions, including: why do young Asian Dutch, who were born and/or raised in the Netherlands, identify as Asian and construct Asian identities? What is the content or meaning of these Asian identities and identifications young Asian Dutch imagine? And how do these relate to young Asian Dutch’ Dutch and homeland identities and identifications? What factors, or markers of Asianness, drive young Asian Dutch’ identification with people and media characters of different Asian origin? How, if at all, do Asian parties and other forms of Asian popular culture facilitate the imagination of Asian identities and Asian identification? The answers to these and other questions addressed in this doctoral thesis will eventually lead to the fulfilment of the main objective, namely to explore and gain an understanding of the role of local Asian Dutch and transnational Asian popular culture in young Asian Dutch’ Asian cultural identification and their construction of Asian cultural identities.