Week 4: A list of preliminary sources, each accompanied by a short statement explaining why it’s potentially useful to your project.
Books:
1. The makeup of RuPaul’s drag race: essays on the queen of reality shows
This book explains TV-show “RuPaul’s drag race”‘s ambivalent appropriation of pop culture. I can learn how one of these queer culture is replaced as pop culture, especially in TV program.
2. Asian Americans in the Twenty-first Century
One of interviewees in this book, “Being Asian, Being Gay”, talks about struggles as gay identity and also as Asian American identity in term of generational gap.
3. Q & A: Queer in Asian America
This book is about queer Asian American and includes interviews of Asian American who identify as Queer. From various aspects by many interviewees, I can know their struggles and the issues of queer Asian Americans.
This book “shows to the internationally sought-after Thai kathoey, or “ladyboy,” to construct a theory of queerness that is inclusive of the race and gender particularities of the gay Asian male experience in the United States” (https://nyupress.org/author/c-winter-han/). This book is really connected to my topic. I can see how Asian American queer community (intersectional issue of race and gender) is like in the United States. And also, the author is talking about Thailand’s kathoey. I can learn the different situation of drag show in Asian country.
Jornal Article:
5. When the Girls Are Men: Negotiating Gender and Sexual Dynamics in a Study of Drag Queen
This article explores a troupe of self-identified gay men who perform as drag queens. I can learn the introduction of drag queens, their role in the community, and their public performances.
6. The trouble with “Queerness”: Drag and the Making of Two Culture
This article explains an ethnographic case study of gay and lesbian performance cultures. The author argues “to move beyond the theoretical quagmire born of “queer” ’s function as both verb and generic, we must adopt a new intellectual paradigm that views relations as the conditions of possibility for embodiment and discourse alike”(p.304). It can be connected to how new culture is accepted or recognized.
7. Out Here and Over There: Queerness and Diaspora in Asian American Studies
This article talks about intersectional issues of Asian American and LGBTQ identity. I might be able to see the struggles of LGBTQ and Asian American, comparing to non-Asian Americans LGBTQ.
Others:
8. Lavern Cummings & David DeAlba
This youtube video shows the revolution of drag queen and how Drag queen has changed from the 1920s till now. I can know how the drag queen has changed visually and the symbolic meaning of drag queen through the history.
9. “RuPaul’s drag race” series (Wiki / IMDb)
This TV show is recognized as one of American Pop Culture. I’d like to use this TV-show to describe how drag queen and drag race are like. Through this TV-show, I can see how Asian American drag queens utilize their Asian culture, in term of costumes and performances.
This website is useful for searching drag queen’s information. I’d like to use this page for researching Asian American drag queen’s profiles, such as their ethnicity, early life, career, personal life.
11. Best of Gia Gunn: A Fishy Girl | RuPaul7s Drag Race All Stars 4
Gia Gunn (Gia Ketaro Ichikawa) is Japanese American Drag Queen who was in “RuPaul’s drag race” season 6 and All Star 4. Also, she is known as trans woman. As you can see in this video, she integrates Japanese culture in her performance. Through these video, I’d like to see how Asian American drag queens integrate their Asian culture in a good way.
12. How “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has influenced pop culture
This article explains how this TV show connects with Pop Culture. I’d like to see how this TV show has evolved and has been known by many people in the United States.
13. How ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ came to dominate pop culture
This is also about similar topic with No.9. The content is similar but, I might see some different views of the history of this TV-show and relationship between Pop culture and RuPaul’s drag show.
14. 34 Drag Performers Around the World Sound Off on the Influence of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ & More
This article has 34 drag queens’ and kings’ interviews about the connection between drag race and local drag shows around the world which are not recognized as pop culture but queer culture. Some of them are talking about the situations of the local drag show in Asian countries.
15. The Fierceness of ‘Femme, Fat, and Asian’
This article is the interview of the author, C.Winter Han, of the book “Geisha of a Different Kind”. He is talking about the stereotype of gay Asian Americans. Also, he talks about Asian American drag queens in Rupaul’s drag race.
Representation of Asian Culture; Stereotype of Gaysian American; Asian Immigrants (generational gap; the way of coming out)
16. ‘Sorry- Love You’: Asian Americans on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
Asian Americans on RuPaul’s drag race
Representation of Asian Culture
17. Kim Chi: The First Drag Queen
About Kim-chi
18. Q and A with drag sensation Kim Chi
interview of Kim Chi
19. Drag queen Kim Chi hopes to spread Korean culture to the world
I am also a fan of Rupaul’s drag race! What a great project idea!
I was really struck by how you emphasized integrating Asian culture to drag “in a good way”. People often forget that Asian-Americans can even appropriate their heritage’s culture. Good luck with your project!