08/01/19
Kaz Senju tells about his adventure.
Last month, I was invited to Lucca 390 by the manager, Hunt, for the 2019 China Drag Queen Contest, an event that takes place over two nights. Unlike the famous image of skyscrapers along the river in Shanghai, Lucca 390 is located in a quiet, residential area, a university campus in the west of Shanghai. From the street, the only thing identifying this LGBTQ space is a small rainbow sign. Once inside, there is the beat of dance music, the heat from hundreds of bodies, and you realize this is not a regular, tourist part of China anymore. Behind the flashy lights and lasers is Hunt who is originally from the Middle East. When he arrived in China, he was an outsider but quickly became a critical part of Shanghai's LGBTQ community, was able to help create a thriving drag scene from what was once a small social gathering. The China Drag Queen Contest is now a major event in the city, and people come from all over China, and from other countries, to attend.
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Hunt was born and raised in the Middle East, in a traditional Moslem family.
Hunt was born and raised in the Middle East, in a traditional Moslem family. He knew he was attracted to men but as lone teenager, he didn't have any way to understanding his desire besides the occasional, surreptitious internet searching and looking at photos online. All of that changed two years after he arrived in Shanghai. The gay community in Shanghai helped Hunt to grow up from a boy who used to pray five times a day, worrying about everything, to a man who is out, and comfortable in his own skin.
On arriving in China in 2007 there was no clear path for Hunt to follow his secret desires.
On arriving in China 2007 there was no clear path for Hunt to follow his secret desires, but he decided to join the Shanghai Pride Parade in 2009, and started to meet people there. After the Parade, he walked into a gay bar, Shanghai Studio, and started to make more friends in the Shanghai gay community. As Hunt made more friends it became clearer to him what he wanted and where his desires lay. Unfortunately, Shanghai Pride was cancelled the following year but Hunt was now hungry to get to know more about the local gay scene. Hunt had studied theater and so he used those skills to organize his own gay party around 2011. In Shanghai, gay parties only happen on weekends, so he decided to start something different, a weekday party. His background in theatre gave the skills to produce an event, including negotiating with venues, working with DJs, drag queens, go-go dancers, and selling tickets. While working as an event producer, Hunt also worked with the Shanghai Pride Parade in 2011, becoming the "gay party" go-to person. His Wednesday party became very popular and allowed him to produce larger parties on the weekends, as well as inviting popular entertainers such as Peter Le, an Asian- American gay adult content producer from Los Angeles.
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The Shanghai LGBTQ Drag Party was started in 2007 by the same group who organized the Shanghai Pride Parade.
The Shanghai LGBTQ Drag Party was started in 2007 by the same group who organized the Shanghai Pride Parade. It started as a small private gathering where people cross-dressed, and socialized at the Shanghai Studio. The Drag Party grew into an annual event, with more people involved so they started contest where people could vote for the best looking Queen and King. In 2012 a new venue, Lucca 390, was opened by the same people who operated Shanghai Studio. The next year, 2013, Lucca 390 management asked Hunt to produce the Shanghai Drag Queen Contest. Instead of just judging the best look, Hunt wanted to expand the event to include performances, but most of the participants didn't have all of the necessary skills to pull off more than a walk in drag. Hunt interviewed each of the participants, helping them with the necessary details, where to get dresses, wigs, and how to lip synch. The first competition had four participants, one American and three Chinese and the American won best queen that year. The next year the field grew to five participants with Victoria, a Chinese drag queen winning the event. From there, the contest helped to bring out more people. By 2017 the drag community had grown such that Hunt created two different categories for the contest; professional and amateurs which was to help new talent to join while not scaring off the more experienced performers. The demands for drag queen and king grew in Shanghai, not just limited to the LGBTQ scene, but also in the straight world. Yizhibo is a Chinese mobile streaming app where many drag queens have thousands of followers, showing tips for make-up, fashion, performing, and talking about their lives.
On June 8 and 9 of this year over two dozen drag queens competed for prizes in the amateur and professional categories.
On June 8 and 9 this year over two dozen drag queens competed for prizes in the amateur and professional categories. June 8 was for the amateur, or up and coming, Drag Queens. The night started off with a dance party where Lucca 390 was packed to the brim with LGBTQ folks of all ages from China and around the world. Each performer had 3 minutes, or one song, in which to strut their stuff on stage, to the cheers of the crowd. Once all the Queens had been scene the music was pumped up again and the room fell into serious dancing, while the judges made their choices. Around midnight the music stopped and the winners were announced, Drew Blood, a new arrival from Auckland who lives in Shanghai took 3rd place, Showya, a local, took 2nd, and Miss Geng Diva, from Chengdu was awarded 1st place. Each of the winners received a sash, bottle of champagne and a check for an amount of money that contained an 8, a lucky number in Chinese.
The contest for the professional Queens took place on the second night, June 9.
The contest for the professional Queens took place on the second night, June 9. A dance party was again part of the festivities, and, as with the amateurs, each of the professionals was given 3 minutes and one song, in which to show the crowd what they had to offer. The judges took their time, while the dance floor writhed with bodies, to come up with the winners, who were Rice Britney, from Guangzhuo, Mandala from Shanghai, and Miss Uni Vers from Russia. A dance off at the end of the night between Wuwuyan from Shanghai and Jessica from Beijing decided two extra prizes, Best Look, which went to Wuwuwyan, and Most Popular, which went to Jessica. As an added bonus, the winners of Best Look and Most Popular both received tiaras, which they tilted and twinkled for the crowd.
“Once a drag queen puts on a pair of high heels and make-up, they become more powerful.”
The Drag Queen contest is more than a just a one night event, it's an on-going community effort. Hunt travels around China, with a help of LGBTQ communities in different parts of China. He wants to see the drag queen contest expand beyond Shanghai into Beijing, Guangzhou, and beyond China so the name of the event was changed from Shanghai Drag Queen Contest to China Drag Queen Contest. He organizes make-up workshops, a place people feel safe to learn what they want to be. He looks back on how seeing a drag queen's performance changed him 10 years ago in Shanghai, and says that, "Once a drag queen puts on a pair of high heels and make-up, they become more powerful."
Drag in China
Drag in China
Drag in China
Drag in China
Drag in China
Drag in China
