A Taiwanese drag queen has stormed the stage of the world’s biggest drag reality TV competition. Nymphia Wind is Taiwan’s first queen to take part in RuPaul's Drag Race.
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00:00 So how did you get into drag?
00:02 I think it was middle school.
00:06 I performed as Girls' Generation's Taeyeon.
00:11 So I was cross-dressing since I was 12, 13 with a bunch of girls.
00:16 And we would dance to those Girls' Generation music videos.
00:20 And since that I had this idea of cross-dressing.
00:24 And I've always had long hair when I was very young to my waist.
00:28 And then going into university, I got to know more about drag.
00:34 And that's when it really started.
00:36 What was it at university that sparked that?
00:39 I think my roommate at the time showed me season 3 of Drag Race.
00:45 And it was Sharon Needles.
00:48 And then going out in London, the nightlife and club kids is pretty awesome there.
00:54 So I would go out and see these people who would dress creatively and dress crazily.
00:59 So you kind of want to try that on and have fun.
01:03 So being a young little gay boy in university, you want to experience everything.
01:08 So I would go by myself to these clubs, do drag makeup, which was hideous, and go see shows.
01:16 So I remember Aquaria went to London to perform, but she wasn't announced on the show.
01:21 But I was obsessed with Aquaria, so I went to see her in drag by myself to this little club in East London to see her perform, which was crazy.
01:33 So you've mentioned Sharon Needles and Aquaria.
01:36 Yeah.
01:37 These are some of your inspirations. Are there any other inspirations?
01:41 Sasha Velour. Sasha Velour is another inspiration of mine.
01:45 Since seeing her on the show, she's just really amazing in how she incorporates arts into her drag, and I really aspire to that.
01:54 And inspirations outside of drag? Have you been inspired by something?
02:00 I don't know. I try to emulate fierce Asian women, because I feel like Asian women in Western media is not really portrayed as much.
02:10 When I think of an Asian pop star in Western culture, I don't see anyone.
02:15 I'm not saying I'm going to be a pop star, but it's just an image of a fierce, fun Asian woman.
02:23 I try to imagine that in my drag.
02:26 And I try to emulate this dominatrix kind of feel to my drag, which is like I demand something, I guess.
02:35 Bananas.
02:36 Huh? Yes, I demand bananas right now.
02:39 And so about the bananas, where did this come from, the banana Buddha?
02:44 It's definitely a slow development. It was in 2020 when I made this full-on, full-on yellow outfit.
02:51 And I was like, "Oh my god, I think I'm obsessed."
02:53 When I started wearing all yellow, and then people would say I look like a banana.
02:57 The idea for me is it's camp, it's kind of sexual, kind of hinting to sex.
03:03 It's phallic. It's just like a really fun object, and it appears a lot in pop art.
03:09 So like bananas just made sense.
03:12 And you take a lot of inspiration from your culture, right?
03:17 And so how does growing up in Taiwan influence your drag?
03:22 So I feel like growing up, I'm not fully immersed in my own Taiwanese culture.
03:26 Because I mean, I was born in the States, and I moved to Hong Kong, and I lived in Hong Kong for a few years.
03:32 And then I moved back to Taiwan.
03:34 So I feel like for me, doing drag and incorporating my own culture is a way of me reconnecting with my own background.
03:42 Since I didn't really have that at a young age, so it's like me trying to get to know my culture again through drag.
03:48 And what do you see in these more traditional aspects of Taiwanese culture?
03:54 And when you look at it, you see drag.
03:57 So where do you see drag in these traditional aspects of Taiwanese culture?
04:01 I don't feel like I see drag necessarily in these cultures.
04:06 But it's just like there's something in it that is so fun to me, and it's just so creative, and just like so local, and loose, and just very inviting to me.
04:16 So I try to like find elements of those traditional acts, like, you know, temple fairs, having a banquet, these shows at temples.
04:27 Like you basically have pole dancers who go naked to dance for the gods.
04:32 But like you wouldn't necessarily think you would see these performances at a traditional temple, kind of, you know, where you're supposed to be praying to God.
04:43 So I don't know, it's just very fun to me.
04:46 It's like an element of camp.
04:49 You wore this outfit for one of the RuPaul's episodes.
04:53 And can you tell us about the outfit? How'd you come up with it?
04:57 This outfit I prepared for the talent show section.
05:01 And for that, I felt like it was a very unique chance for me to showcase my culture.
05:07 Because, you know, RuPaul's Drag Race is a competition format.
05:11 So you don't necessarily get a lot of opportunities to really do a more serious cultural thing.
05:18 So I felt like the talent show was a chance for me to be more serious.
05:23 So I reached out to a person, a Taiwanese designer I used to work for to make this outfit.
05:29 Because he specializes in more traditional kind of outfits.
05:33 So like they made this bird, which is a Taiwanese national Taiwanese bird, the Taiwanese magpie on my head.
05:43 So for that talent member, I imagined being a Taiwanese bird landing on American soil, doing my little dance around the stage.
05:52 So what did you bring to RuPaul that you think was an advantage for you to win over the other queens?
05:59 Being an Asian queen and being able to really incorporate my traditional background
06:05 already gives me an edge in this competition, which makes me really unique.
06:09 Because I feel like not a lot of people can do this kind of drag that I do.
06:19 And a lot of people who grow up watching Drag Race have this idea of how to do drag through watching Drag Race.
06:29 So they don't necessarily think of, oh, I could, you know, incorporate this.
06:35 That is a more traditional way of doing drag into their own drag.
06:40 And without giving anything away on the show, obviously, what did you struggle with most throughout the competition?
06:46 Remembering to be myself and to be centered in oneself.
06:53 Because I feel like, you know, being in a competition setting, it's really stressful.
06:57 You see all these fierce queens do their thing.
07:00 And then you kind of get into an insecure headspace of, oh, maybe I should do what they're doing to really show more of myself.
07:10 You know, at one point, I really had to lay in bed and remind myself to, you know, being myself is enough.
07:19 Like they chose you, obviously, for a reason.
07:21 So you don't really have to be someone else.
07:25 It's easier said than done.
07:27 Said than done.
07:29 You know, being yourself is really hard.
07:31 It's stressful.
07:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]