Sometimes, you’ll see me doing a hip thrust, and then, ten seconds later, I’ll be doing a more feminine dance move. If you find three other girls who are as curious about their individualities as you are, who are cool and friendly, why not start a drag king group? How do you explore gender identity through your acts as drag kings?īB: I like to combine my masculinity and femininity into my drag. For many queers, we relate a lot to “chosen family” because we grew up around people who are mostly heterosexual and could not provide guidance in exploring our identity. We hope to be able to showcase the uniqueness of expressing masculinity in a silly way.īB: Because bros support bros! Queer friendship and solidarity are so important. Our group includes Uncle Apollo uncle.apollooo), Gin Pan king.ginpan), Boy Bawang boy_bawanggg) and myself, Jamie Blue jamieblueking). Which as far as our knowledge, this had not been done before in Hong Kong. We decided to create a group mostly because we got along well, and also because there is something special in a group of drag kings together. JB: K.I.N.G.S is a group formed by the drag kings within Dragjam. Why did you create the group and bring drag king culture to Hong Kong? Representation is important! There are a hundred ways to be a girl, to be queer, and we showcase that diversity in drag. It is important to the LGBT community because it celebrates expression, creates a safe space for people to express and celebrate masculinity, just as drag queens do with exploring femininity.īoy Bawang (BB): It is important because it offers a multifaceted representation of girls (and not only the queer ones).

They are called Bio Kings, it is under the Drag King umbrella. This definition has expanded to include males who want to portray a bigger version of themselves. Jamie Blue (JB): A Drag King is traditionally a person who identifies as a female and plays a character of a male person. What is a drag king and why is its role important for the LGBT community? Group members Uncle Apollo, Gin Pan, Boy Bawang and Jamie Blue sit down with The Beat Asia to introduce Hong Kong’s newest theatrical troupe.

One troupe called K.I.N.G.S, formed by four Hong Kongers, are embracing the ancient performance practice in 2023, shining light on an underrepresented theatrical performance within the LGBT community. The practice of drag kings, that involves female performance artists dressing in masculine drag and personifying male gender stereotypes, has been long embraced by the LBGT community for centuries in our corner of the world.įrom the middle of the Tang dynasty (617 to 908) in China, “female men” characters were represented in stage performance, all the way through the 19th and 20th centuries in the nation.

Male drag king