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I pay close attention to the semiotizied construction of persona in digital media. I approach the mediated performance of character as a process of commodification wherein the persona is discursively constructed and ideologically packaged as a marketable product that calibrates mainstream ideologies among viewers.
In particular, I focus on Uncle Roger, a popular Asian middle-aged male character on YouTube, who is performed by a Malaysian-born stand-up comedian Nigel Ng.Â
Moreover, blurring the on- and off-line boundaries, the digital entrepreneurship success of Uncle Roger is materialized across diverse social domains, as shown in his tour of stand-up comedies, variety show appearances, restaurant ownership, and the merchandize.
The case of Uncle Roger, which elicits a new form of racialization, points to the saliency of the raciolinguistic perspective.
I mainly employ critical discourse analysis to examine the ways in which the performer recruits various semiotic resources to commodify an Asian persona in current digitalized media marketplace.
Title of ongoing project:
"The digital raciolinguistic commodification of an Asian persona: The stylistic bricolage of Uncle Roger and indexical meanings of a generic Asian Englishes"
International Conference Presentation
Ao Ieong, W. U. G. (2026, July 13). The digital raciolinguistic commodification of an Asian persona: The stylistic bricolage of Uncle Roger and indexical meanings of a generic Asian Englishes. Paper presented at Sociolinguistics Symposium 26, University of Fort Hare, East London, South Africa.
Open source from the Youtube channel Nigel Ng, accessed 22 July 2026
Source: Miri City Sharing, accessed 22 July 2026
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