![]() Throughout the season, Kim Chi was also open about being ‘in the closet’ around her traditional Korean family, and the deliberate separation of her Korean, gay, and drag identities. Furthermore, Kim’s final performance was an original song which turned the phrase “Fat, Femme & Asian”-three identities through which Kim’s sexuality is straightjacketed-into a dance sensation. In a final twist, RuPaul revealed that Peter-the sole Asian model-was the only “top bunker,” stumping all the competitors. On Kim’s season of drag race, one mini-challenge consisted of queens assigning male models to the “top bunk” or “bottom bunk”-a coded way of guessing their sexual preference of being the insertive or receptive partner. Sinophobia is especially salient in gay dating apps, where one is likely to encounter phrases like “No Fats, Femmes or Asians” or “No Rice, No Spice.” Drag Race seems in some ways to be working to dismantle stereotypes of (g)Asian sexuality, although the show’s tongue-in-cheek delivery makes it hard to decipher exactly how successful they are. This resonates with Richard Fung’s “Looking for My Penis,” which explores Asian actors in gay porn films, underscoring the prevalence of submission (bottoming), fetishization, and Orientalizing. In one episode, Kim reveals to her co-competitors that she is a virgin-opening up a conversation on Asian/American sexualities and racial “preference” in gay dating. Through her participation on Drag Race, Kim calls attention to these problems, and in doing so, begins the process of “unbinding the straightjacket.” ![]() While drag represents gender-fucked liberation for many gay men, Kim Chi’s experiences highlight how this gay subculture is imbued with racism. Throughout the season run, it became clear that Kim’s experiences as a gay, Asian man were profoundly influenced by a culture of racism within predominantly white, gay spaces. Although she’s the fourth East Asian/American drag queen to compete on the franchise-following other fan favorites Jujubee, Manila Luzon, and Gia Gunn-Kim Chi is the first to foreground issues of conflicting Asian/American and queer identity. Beyond her stunning looks and winning personality, Kim Chi won over audiences with her vulnerable and emotional accounts of being a gay, Korean drag queen. Kim’s stunningly original makeup concepts and couture fashion made her an instant frontrunner, as she and co-competitor Bob the Drag Queen (the eventual winner of the season) dominated the competition. Sang-Young Shin) captivated judges and audiences alike with her beauty, charisma, and grace (or sometimes lack thereof). In the eighth season of Logo’s cult-favorite RuPaul’s Drag Race, Korean-American drag queen Kim Chi (a.k.a.
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