A primer on RuPaul’s Drag Race for ignoramuses like us
A conversation with the amazing Kira Thurman. Plus, a brawl in the legislature and the inauguration tomorrow.
Hello readers,
There was a spontaneous protest late Friday night outside of the Taiwanese legislature. It was sparked by one of the most intense fights that broke out on the legislative floor. Brawls are nothing new in Taiwanese politics, and of course we condemn all violence. But the most recent acts have been sparked by a series of outrageous norm-breaking moves, including not even revealing which version of the bill everybody was voting on, and not even requiring a roll call. Meanwhile, the bills that the KMT and TPP majority are trying to ram through are also outrageous. One is a clearly unfeasible and environmentally destructive bill that aims to drill a tunnel through the Central Mountain Range. It will cost 2 trillion NTD. Another bill expands the powers of the legislature to criminalize any private citizen or public official—literally anybody—who fails to appear for a subpoena. You can get charged for “contempt of congress”—yes, that’s disturbingly vague—and put in jail for three years. The bill could enable a McCarthy-style witchhunt. There will be a protest outside of the legislature on Tuesday evening at 6:30 PM to continue to press the new legislators to uphold democratic norms and procedures of parliament. If you’re interested, we recommend this explainer by Miao Poya in Chinese:
We’re following this story closely, but it’s clear that the legislature is trying to embarrass the incoming President, William Ching-te Lai, who will be inaugurated tomorrow, May 20. And speaking of the inauguration, Michelle will be speaking on TaiwanPlus live tomorrow morning.
But on to more fun things. From here on, beware of MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS for the most recent season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
This past Wednesday—during the final week of President Tsai’s historic eight-year presidency—Nymphia Wind, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, gave a performance at the equivalent of Taiwan’s White House.
“This is probably the first presidential office in the world to host a drag show," Nymphia said after her performance, which was streamed live on the administration’s YouTube channel. She thanked President Tsai for ensuring the legalization of same-sex marriage, and for “your eight years of dedication, becoming our Taiwan mother."
President Tsai replied: “Taiwan thanks you for living fearlessly.”
Nymphia’s playful and joyful performance marked a festive end to eight years of Tsai’s rule. As journalist Cornelius Dieckmann observed on X, “In her last week in office, Taiwan president Tsai, who brought marriage equality to the country, cements her stance for queer rights and representation. Or, simply: expression of individuality in a society that demanded uniformity for so long. Surely a key part of Tsai’s legacy.”
Unlike many of you, we didn’t watch RuPaul’s Drag Race until after Nymphia won. (In Taiwan, there were RuPaul watch parties across the country, especially at a couple drag bars where Nymphia made her start.)
But we’re eager to learn more, so we caught up with our longtime dear friend and all-around badass academic and musician Kira Thurman, who’s been telling us to write about RuPaul and Nymphia since the very beginning. (Kira is also the author of an amazing, path-breaking book on Black musicians in German-speaking Europe—check it out!)
If you’re ignoramuses (ignorami?) like us, this interview is for you.
Albert: People have been telling us to write about Nymphia all year, but Kira, you were the first. I have the receipt: in an email from January 28, you wrote: “Are you familiar with Nymphia Wind, the first Taiwanese contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race? She's been tearing it up! She won last week's episode and has become a fan favorite. She's got all of the girlies gooped and gagged!!!! Please talk about her in your newsletter!!!”
I’m sorry we’re such late bandwagon-jumpers. Actually, I feel like this is a recurring recommendation—I remember you telling me when we were in Berlin together in 2009 that I needed to get into RuPaul.
Kira: Yeah, I’ve been watching RuPaul since the beginning, in 2009.
Albert: What hooked you?
Kira: Oh, that’s a great question. I’ve realized belatedly that even though my family is evangelical, in some ways I was raised around queer culture. I had a “gay uncle” growing up. We weren’t biologically related, but he was a teacher friend of my mother, who was also a teacher. He was hilarious and delightful and everything that a “guncle'' was supposed to be. I also had a wonderful and flamboyant theater teacher who cast me in musicals and made me watch Bob Fosse choreography. I was reared in the tradition of musical theater and costumes and jazz hands. One step over from that and then bam! You're in the drag world.
In college I went to a music conservatory, an institution that is basically dominated by like, cis women and gay men, and I quickly became best friends with a whole cadre of musical theater gays.
In grad school in Rochester, I started going to live drag shows and I realized that drag was just so much fun. I’ve been surrounded by a wide array of queer people in my life, and I feel really fortunate—it’s been a real honor—to have friends who call me their “good Judy.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race has changed so much over time. Of course RuPaul was this iconic figure in the ’90s. Then he disappeared and came back with this reality competition show on Logo, a channel dedicated to LGBTQ+ audiences. Looking back at the early seasons, the budget was incredibly tight, practically nonexistent. The lighting was terrible, and the prize money for the first season was just $25,000. Now the prize is $200,000—just to give you a sense of the growth.
Also, the budget for securing the rights to lip-sync songs used to be very low. They couldn’t afford the rights to big hits like Beyoncé songs. Instead, they used more affordable tracks like Stacey Q’s “Two of Hearts.” In contrast, this summer’s finale featured Kylie Minogue’s major hit “Padam.” That must have cost a fortune—or perhaps Kylie Minogue offered it at a low price because she’s an ally.
Albert:So how does a season of the Drag Race work?
Kira: Oh my, bless you. You know nothing!!! [We all laugh] Oh my God, where do I even start?
Michelle: Is there a season we should start with? Do we start with season one?
Kira: No, no, season one is for the diehards; it’s for the OGs, not for you guys. I'm sorry. But a Drag Race season needs to be double digits for you to get into it, I think. [We all laugh]
So let me explain the format of this reality competition. Typically, a dozen to sixteen drag queens compete to become the winner of the season. They compete through a series of challenges that test their skills as drag queens.
What I love about Drag Race, and drag in general, is the level of commitment it requires. You have to think about aesthetics, performance, and executing all of these things at such a high level. The show is like Project Runway meets America's Next Top Model meets comedy meets theater, and more.
For example, contestants might have a sewing challenge where they have to create an outfit. Sometimes they have to make an outfit for a stranger, like in a "Support Our Troops"-themed challenge. Good Lord does Ru love to push “gay patriot” numbers on the show. For this challenge, the queens have to turn the veterans into drag queens with a family resemblance, like sisters. This requires sewing skills, makeup skills, wig and hair skills—and then they have to come up with a performance together, which has to be fun, exciting, and entertaining.
The top queen wins the episode, and the bottom two queens have to lip-sync for their lives. This is what sets RuPaul's Drag Race apart from other shows where the bottom person is simply eliminated. Lip-syncing is the ultimate art of the drag queen, a performance of femininity, womanhood, and more. It’s fascinating. Whoever lip-syncs the best survives, leading to RuPaul's legendary phrase to the survivor: "Shantay, you stay." The one who has to leave hears, "Sashay away."
There's so much to the language and culture of the show. From the beginning, RuPaul has emphasized Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent. It took me years to realize what the acronym meant. The show is filled with inside jokes and references, creating its own unique world. It's my equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Infinity Stones and whatever. [We all laugh]
(At the Presidential office, Tsai Ing-wen used the phrase “Shantay you stay” in her speech.)
Albert: Has the show changed over the years?
Kira: Not much, though the budget has gotten bigger. This is both good and bad. I'm not entirely in love with RuPaul's vision of the world.
Albert: I read something about how the show’s stance on transgender contestants has shifted.
Kira: That’s a really great example. The show had to go through its own reckoning, and has become more trans-inclusive and less transphobic. We started getting more openly trans women on the show. Peppermint was the first openly trans woman on the show. Then came Kylie Sonique, Laganja Estranja, Gia Gunn, and others. And, of course, Sasha Colby, who is a goddess. She is literally Mother. I don’t even know how to explain it. I would die for her. I would literally die for her.
Michelle: Why is that?
Kira: Sasha Colby is the Beyoncé of Drag Race. She has been in this business for twenty-something years. As Sasha herself says, she is “your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen.” She’s perfection, she’s flawless, she’s so gracious. Again, she is Mother with a capital M.
Albert: What were your first impressions of Nymphia Wind?
Kira: I was really excited when I saw Nymphia Wind for the first time, because she immediately gave kooky, weird, but gorgeous glam. It was a really fascinating combo and difficult to pull off.
For some context, there are many different styles of drag; it's not just one thing. Over the years, we've seen more representation of these diverse styles. In the beginning, it was mainly beauty pageant queens, and the show had a very polished, glamorous look. Then we started seeing other types of queens, like those with a Halloween-spooky aesthetic, deliberately trying to creep you out. We also got more comedy queens, who were used to doing standup comedy and similar performances.
Eventually, we started seeing haute couture queens—this is more what Nymphia was doing—who have studied at fashion schools and could easily be imagined on runways. They're not doing the Miss America pageant gowns; they're giving you Valentino and Mugler—high fashion.
So seeing Nymphia was really exciting because she was so silly and goofy, yet you could tell there was a polish to what she was doing.
Michelle: Why do you think there hadn't been an East Asian winner in the past?
Kira: That’s such a good question. In sixteen seasons, there’s been pretty good Latina and Black representation. But aside from Nymphia, there’s been only one other Asian winner at all—Raja from season three, whose family is Dutch Indonesian. And then we've had a lot of finalists—not that many, but we've had them.
For example, Kim Chi, who is Korean, is known for her gorgeous makeup. Then there's Jujubee, who shall forever reign in my heart as one of my top queens. Manila Luzon, who is Filipino American, is someone who could have won at one point. Anetra, who is half Filipino (Filipino, Japanese, German, and Puerto Rican descent), was a finalist last year against Sasha Colby. But there's no beating Sasha Colby. It's like trying to fight the air! Sasha Colby herself is Native Hawaiian and showcased her AAPI heritage beautifully on the show.
I think Nymphia’s win is important because it rejects the whiteness of drag and gay pop culture. Which she’s talked about. What was really refreshing about Nymphia is that she came in strong and was very deliberate about representing Asian drag performers. She even jokes, "I want to give everyone yellow fever. That's probably bad." That's her style—goofy and silly. She also made it a point to stress that she was representing Taiwan.
For a long time—from season seven through ten or eleven—a lot of the queens winning and placing in the top were white. Which reinforce the queer of color critique that gayness is often portrayed as white and middle-class—even though the reality is, of course, that many queer folks are people of color.
Nymphia is also important because she addressed specifically anti-Asian racism within the queer community. When Kim Chi was on RuPaul's Drag Race, she did a performance highlighting how Grindr profiles often say, "No fats, no femmes, no Asians." Kim Chi said, “I’m all of the above.” Her performance highlighted the anti-Asian bias among queer people and how it manifests in daily life.
Nymphia also talked about growing up and feeling deeply insecure because she didn't see representations of queer people who looked like her—they were all tall and blond with straight noses, she said. Even on RuPaul’s Drag Race, she still felt insecure about not fitting the Western ideal of beauty.
Albert: How do they pick a winner? Is it just RuPaul or is there like a committee?
Kira: [Aghast at the stupidity of the question] Oh my God, I need to start treating you not as friends but as some, like, random NPR broadcast. [We all laugh]
So yes, it's always RuPaul. When it’s called RuPaul’s Drag Race, it’s RuPaul’s drag race. RuPaul always picks everything. But there’s a committee. This last season, it was Ts Madison—my queen—and Ross Matthews, Carson Kressley, and of course always Michelle Visage. Michelle is RuPaul's best friend and the original "good Judy." Michelle is there to advise Ru and give her guidance. But Ru always says in every episode, "The decision is mine to make.” It's a whole thing.
But Albert's question was about how the finalists are chosen. Since season nine, the top three or four queens lip-sync against each other in a March Madness–style competition until there is a winner. It's amazing! It changes a bit here and there, but generally that's what happens. In the final round, Ru picks the last two queens to lip-sync against each other.
For example, in the last season, it was Nymphia versus Sapphira Cristal, who I also love, lip syncing to Kylie Minogue’s “Padam." Nymphia absolutely won the lip-sync, and while I love Sapphira, it was clear that Nymphia had the edge. Her reveals, timing, and dancing were meticulously planned, making her performance stand out.
Michelle: Did they explain Nymphia’s Taiwaneseness? Was it heavy-handed, or did it seem organic and natural?
Kira: No, it wasn’t heavy-handed. On shows like this, especially at the beginning when there are sixteen queens and it’s so crowded, they only have about twenty seconds to show America who they are, and to brand or market themselves in a memorable way. There are a lot of things that aren’t memorable. Some queens, despite being on many episodes, just don’t stand out. The entire goal with RuPaul’s Drag Race is to figure out how to stand out.
RuPaul’s Drag Race isn’t even about winning anymore. There’s so much that can happen to transform your life after being on the show. Some queens end up on Broadway; Trixie Mattel has a huge makeup empire now. The trick is to figure out how to make the most of your limited time on the show. This might sound capitalistic, but it’s about selling yourself. This show marks the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. For most queens, there’s a clear divide in their timelines: before RuPaul’s Drag Race and after RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Albert: One of the most moving things from the documentary we watched was that Nymphia was a totally shy kid. Drag transformed her.
Kira: Yeah, even this season, you can infer that Nymphia wasn't the loudest girl. Drag queens can be very loud, you know. She occasionally exasperated the other queens because she would go through a kind of spiraling during the preparation for the main challenge—like while making a dress or rehearsing for a group number. Then she would always end up on top. That frustrated some of the queens, who were like, “Why are you pretending to spiral when we all know you're going to be at the top?” Nymphia replied, “But I don't know that I'm going to be at the top, this is part of my process.” That felt relatable to me in terms of struggling with your art. She didn't know the outcome; she was working so hard to overcome her own doubts about herself. She kept questioning, "Is this actually going to work? Is it going to work? I don't know. Is this going to work?"
Michelle: When did you feel like Nymphia had a shot to win it all?
Kira: Oh, early on, like episode one, episode two, or episode three. In the first design challenge episode, her look was so stunning. She won. It was obvious early on.
Albert: Did they give a bit of the backstory about how she was raised by a single mom?
Kira: No, that came out in the last episode. We met the mom and one of Nymphia’s best friends. The mom seemed really lovely and supportive, which made Nymphia cry on stage. Nymphia talked about how grateful she was to come from Taiwan, the only East Asian country to legalize gay marriage. She wanted to highlight how progressive Taiwan can be compared to the image people might have of Asian societies.
Michelle: I was surprised when I read about her career. Before she went to the U.S., she had only been in the drag scene for four or five years in Taipei. She decided to try to make it in New York, and she won a big contest that helped get her onto RuPaul. Even winning that contest was a big thing for the LGBTQ community and the drag scene in Taiwan. And now she’s won RuPaul.
Kira: You’re bringing up an important point about the Drag Race empire. There are spinoffs in different countries—Thailand, the Philippines, and others. While there are winners there, being on the U.S. mainstage still has a unique prestige. For example, Marina Summers, a runner-up on Drag Race: Philippines, wanted to come to the Anglophone world and be on the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs. the World. She believed she could reach a much bigger audience, and she did. A British drag queen named The Vivienne did the same thing by appearing on the American mainstage in All Stars 7. There’s something about the U.S. stage that is the ultimate platform.
Michelle: It sounds like the show celebrates diversity, but are there common threads that connect all the winners. What makes them rise above?
Kira: There is an unstoppable excellence to them. Drag Race is a world unto itself. It has its own rules and its own aesthetic standards. It’s beautiful, transformative, elegant, and liberating. Everyone is still striving for perfection and excellence in what they do.
Every queen who wins has that "it" factor. They can do it all—act, sing, lip-sync, and sew. Even if they have weaknesses, like Nymphia not being the best actress, they make up for them in other ways. Ultimately, being a drag queen is about performing. You can turn out the best looks and sew amazing things, but you have to be able to perform. Nymphia proved that she could perform in the final lip-sync.
Albert: How does it feel for the show to go so mainstream? Do people talk about that?
Kira: Oh, yeah, definitely. One criticism among OG viewers is that the show’s become too tame. It’s missing the wild shaggy qualities that made drag so subversive. Now, suburban moms in Nebraska can watch it and cheer—and to some, that’s de-fanged drag. This is a similar criticism about Pride parades, by the way, that straight families will attend them and then complain when queer folks do things that aren’t rated PG. Queer expressions have to exist outside of what is comfortable for The Straights (™).
So I get all of that. But I think we can still read the show’s long-term mission as exciting anyway: to normalize drag in a homophobic society. And I think it’s been working. Why else would politicians try to put forth bills banning drag if it didn’t have this transformative power?
Anyway, at this point I’m definitely that crabby old-timer with this deep institutional knowledge and memory. I’m constantly like, “You weren't there when Tyra Sanchez got into it with Tatianna in season two. You weren’t there when Roxxxy Andrews came for Jinkx Monsoon in season 5, or when Mimi Imfurst got absolutely roasted during All Stars season 1. I was in the trenches.”
I feel like I've become the old relic, the old witch with the knowledge of the herbs and the tea. I'll talk to college students or grad students, and they'll be like, "Oh my God, did you know about this thing that happened on season ten," and I'm like, “You baby child, you don't know anything about Drag Race.”
Albert: “Get off my lawn!”
Kira: Exactly, it’s like that C. S. Lewis quote: "Do not cite the deep magic to me. I was there when it was written."
Lip Sync for your life
If you want to put a smile on your face, watch this clip for Nymphia’s delightful boba costume. In an interview, she later said she wanted to use a symbol of Taiwan but didn’t want the flag. So she chose our national drink.
And here are some other lip syncs battles that Kira recommends for first-time viewers:
Other Links
Read Leona Chen’s great piece on the brilliant new book by Wendy Cheng Island X, republished at Taiwan Insight and published originally at TaiwaneseAmerican.org.
It’s delightful to see Michelle’s book Reading with Patrick on the terrific novelist Claire Messud’s list of book recommendations. Her list includes books such as Palestinian Walks, Beloved, Rebecca, and authors such as Amitav Ghosh and Hans Fallada. Come to our book club on her new novel about a pied-noir family on Aug. 2 / Aug. 3. Details below.
Book Club
We’ll finish Abraham Verghese’s COVENANT OF WATER this month, then read Claire Keegan’s FOSTER and SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, then Claire Messud’s THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY. Reply to this email for the zoom link.
Friday, May 31 / Saturday June 1 Abraham Verghese, COVENANT OF WATER
Friday, June 28 / Saturday, June 29 Claire Keegan, FOSTER & SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE
Friday, Aug 2 / Saturday, Aug 3 - Claire Messud, THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY