A drag queen has sparked nationwide celebration because the “satisfaction of Taiwan” and received reward and congratulations from the island’s president after successful RuPaul’s Drag Race on the weekend.
On Saturday, the long-running, Emmy award-winning US actuality present, wherein drag queens compete in challenges together with lip-sync performances, revealed the winner of its sixteenth season as Nymphia Wind, the drag character creation of Leo Tsao, a 28-year-old Taiwanese designer.
Nymphia Wind’s entry in RuPaul’s Drag Race drew huge assist from her residence nation, which is turning into more and more well-known for its vibrant and vibrant drag neighborhood.
At Taipei’s Ximending Purple Home complicated, the birthplace of the Taiwanese capital’s drag scene, crowds at weekly stay screenings grew as she progressed by the rounds.
On the announcement of her win throughout the present’s finale on Saturday, followers at Purple Home screamed, hugged, and waved the bananas that Nymphia Wind had made a logo of her Asian and Taiwanese id.
The subculture just isn’t usually mentioned intimately in Taiwan however native media gave her win in depth protection, saying she had “damaged the Asian curse” and “set a document as the primary particular person [from] Taiwan”.
Accepting her win, Nymphia Wind mentioned: “Taiwan, that is for you”, prompting thanks from the president, Tsai Ing-wen, for “residing fearlessly”.
“Congratulations to you, Nymphia Wind, for being so completed within the troublesome artwork type of drag, and for being the primary Taiwanese to take the stage and win on RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Tsai mentioned.
Tsai and her ruling social gathering DPP pushed laborious to boost LGBTQ+ rights in Taiwan, together with legalising same-sex marriage in 2019, the primary in Asia to take action, and amending the regulation to permit same-sex {couples} to undertake youngsters in 2023.
Nymphia Wind, who grew up in Taiwan and Hong Kong, has mentioned that with the assist of her mom, who flew to New York for the ultimate episode, she developed a ardour for vogue and drag throughout her research in London.
Her performances on Drag Race have been stuffed with east Asian and Taiwanese parts – bubble tea, Taiwanese temples and Chinese language conventional opera, and the color yellow – representing her private background. She turned identified for her self-created outfits and was nicknamed Banana Buddha, and her followers as Banana Believers.
“Yellow isn’t just a color, it’s me as an Asian particular person,” she wrote on her social media. “My existence is yellow. I’m all the time sporting yellow. Via drag it has taught me to understand my Asian id.”
She advised Entertainment Weekly her ultimate costume, a boba-tea-themed outfit, was her approach of “being camp and nonetheless representing my nation, and discovering a enjoyable approach to do that lip-sync … I clearly got here right here to characterize my nation, and I’m not going to do it by placing a flag on my gown.”
In November 2023, Nymphia Wind performed at a traditional Taoist temple in Taiwan, subverting the normal venues of the nation’s religions and making drag queen tradition extra accessible to the general public.
“This occasion is meant for everybody to take part in, breaking the echo chamber by inviting elders and kids to return collectively to benefit from the pleasure of cross-dressing, placing apart prejudices and having fun with the second collectively in the identical house,” Nymphia Wind wrote on social media.