Welcome to the reign of the banana queen! During the season 16 finale in April, Nymphia Wind became the newest queen to join the winner’s circle of RuPaul’s Drag Race — and made herstory while doing it. As the very first East Asian and Taiwanese winner of the flagship series, the crowned queen is hoping this very important moment will resonate for many LGBTQ+ young people.
“It’s pretty crazy,” says Nymphia, known for her signature bright yellow banana-themed ensembles. “It’s been a wild, wild, wild ride — like I’ve been on a tornado! Hopefully I don’t disappoint [queer youth] and will inspire them to want to be beautiful and really come out to their parents.”
Nymphia kisses her royal septor just after being crowned "America's Next Drag Supertstar" in April.courtesy MTV
Nymphia is well aware of the responsibility that comes with being crowned “America’s Next Drag Superstar” and is ready for more Asians around the world to truly love themselves.
“A lot of Asian children are so scared of their parents, because Asian parents are known to be very strict and very traditional,” she says. “Hopefully, I can plant a little seed in their parents’ hearts to let them know that drag can be a career. It’s not something to be looked down upon. It’s so creative and so fun!”
Since her crowning, Wind’s fears of disappointing anyone have proved unfounded, as her Taiwanese fans — including the country’s president — couldn’t be prouder. In May, Nymphia was invited to perform for Taiwan’s female former president, Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party have been staunch advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and in 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize marriage equality.
Nymphia Wind performed for former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (above), who supported marriage equality in the country.jamesonwu1972/Shutterstock
“This is probably the first presidential office in the world to host a drag show,” Nymphia told Tsai after her performance, which streamed live on the presidential office’s YouTube channel. She thanked Tsai for her efforts in legalizing same-sex marriages and her dedication to the LGBTQ+ community. “Thank you for your contributions to this country so that I could grow up to be like this today,” said Nymphia with much emotion. “Thank you for your eight years of dedication, becoming our Taiwan mother.”
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