In the 15 years since joining the San Francisco Asian American drag troupe the Rice Rockettes, Chi-Chi Kago has witnessed cultural attitudes toward each drag and Asian American representation change dramatically.
Although the group has grown “old and mature,” she said, she hopes it might proceed to bring something “new and fresh” to the table.
“Are we still relevant now that Asian drag is mainstream?” Kago pondered. “I think so.”
The Rice Rockettes are the “premier all-Asian drag group in San Francisco,” says Estée Longah, a Filipino-American drag queen and house mom of the 15-member group. Although Longah says “premier” just means they're the longest-running Asian American and Pacific Islander drag group, the group is a respected institution amongst queer Asian Americans.
It was founded in 2009 by Longah and other drag queens she met while working with AAPI community groups similar to the now-renamed API Wellness Center and the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance.
Longah recalls that there weren't many Asian American drag queens in San Francisco within the mid-2000s. She competed in beauty pageants inside the AAPI community and the mainstream LGBTQ+ community and noticed a difference in the best way each of them operated. She described the mainstream beauty pageants as competitive and focused on getting the job done, while beauty pageants amongst Asian Americans provided a way of community, connection, and camaraderie that she enjoyed.
The Rice Rockettes were in a novel position once they formed. Faced with racist stereotypes that forged them as feminine, passive “bottoms,” many gay Asian men turned to hypermasculinity and rejected drag, seeing it as a stepping stone to gender transition. Several drag queens from a gaggle that predated the Rice Rockettes, the Rice Girls, also underwent gender transition, lending credence to the concept that being a drag queen is a gateway to a transgender identity reasonably than a type of self-expression in its own right.
The Rice Rockettes were founded with two goals in mind, Longah said: to offer a protected space where gay AAPI men can find out about and feel comfortable participating in drag, whether or not they want the gender transition or not, and to recreate the identical camaraderie Longah found at queer AAPI beauty pageants in order that members feel supported of their journey to pull.
“I think what the group excelled at most was storytelling and humor and a kind of crazy, unique San Francisco perspective, and those are things that really appeal to me,” said Imelda Glucose, a Filipino-American drag queen within the group.
Over the subsequent decade, the Rice Rockettes continued to fill an increasing number of bars and clubs with their shows, often acting at the Lookout, a bar in San Francisco. Community involvement was a priority at their shows, hosting fundraisers for local causes and for the victims of Hurricane Haiyan within the Philippines in 2013 and the Tohoku earthquake in Japan in 2011.
Starting in October 2013, the group had their very own monthly show called “Rice Rockettes Presents…” The group also auditioned as a dance group on America's Got Talent in 2011. Kago said that while the experience wasn't entirely positive, it was entertaining and gave the group some exposure. In 2019, the group celebrated its tenth anniversary with a celebratory show, marking the height of the Rice Rockettes' popularity, Longah said.
“We did a 10th anniversary show that was very well received. People really loved watching us play group and solo numbers and sort of a 'best of' and really challenge ourselves to do some pretty difficult things on stage to entertain the audience,” Kago said.
For the queens who joined the Rice Rockettes, the group's unique storytelling provided a possibility to specific their truths in a witty yet provocative way.
Glucose recalled a performance by her drag mother, Doncha Vishyuwuzme, who tackled the stereotype that Asian Americans eat dogs. To the tune of a catchy pop song, Vishyuwuzme revealed that she served dog parts, not chicken parts.
“The way everyone incorporates their identity as Asian into their performances and the way we make fun of the things that others who are not Asian or not part of our community have made fun of us for is, in a way, like a reclamation,” Glucose said.
Another drag queen, Kristi Yummykochi, said drag allowed her to explore her Japanese-American identity with a private number based on a story from her mother's family.
“When you do a drag act about such a personal story, you learn about it. You ask your family members, you research what happened and you ask yourself, 'What was that?', 'How can I tell this story?' And that, I think, brings you closer to your own identity,” Yummykochi said.
When the pandemic shut every part down in March 2020, the Rice Rockettes adapted by hosting two digital shows and keeping in contact with one another through monthly video chats. Although they resumed live shows in 2021, the pandemic had dealt a serious blow to San Francisco's nightlife. Due to the oversupply of drag content, there was little interest of their performances, and the high cost of living kept people from going to bars and clubs. Due to burnout, fewer queens were also willing to perform. The group then modified its direction, and the Rice Rockettes' monthly show was renamed “Estée Longah's Casting Couch,” which regularly featured members of the Rice Rockettes and other guest artists.
Longah said one among the low points within the group's history was when the Proud Boys attacked fellow member Rice Rockette Panda Dulce during a Drag Queen Story Hour event on the San Lorenzo Library in 2022.
The event was interrupted when a gaggle of Proud Boys members burst in and hurled insults at Dulce. One called her a “groomer” and one other wore a T-shirt that read “Kill your local pedophile” and had a picture of an AK-47 on it.
“The right's alarmist, downright fascist bias about who should and shouldn't exist will never override the undeniable reality that we (LGBTQ people) exist,” Dulce said in an interview with CNN.
Longah said the attack affected her deeply since it was not only an attack on a member of her group, but additionally on her drag daughter, who was not within the Bay Area on the time.
“This has really changed the way we work and our attitude towards safety,” Longah said, also advising members to return together and pay attention to their surroundings.
The group tries to tell one another about performances outside the group and, consequently of the attack, now not accepts private bookings.
Vermicelli Versace, a Vietnamese-American drag queen who joined the group in 2019, said that in light of the attack — in addition to recent drag bans and anti-trans laws and the rise of the Stop Asian Hate movement in response to attacks on Asian Americans — the group's work will not be done.
“We are here for a reason. And we are here to continue to be a light for the community,” Versace said.
Longah said many members joined the Rice Rockettes without much drag experience, and now she has seen them grow as people and develop their drag personalities to the purpose where they’ll exit and pursue their individual drag careers. This was true for Siam Phusri, a Thai-American drag queen who joined the group up to now two years. She said her happiest moment was winning Mx. GAPA in 2022, a beauty pageant hosted by the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, or GAPA.
Kago said she hopes to recruit recent drag queens and collaborate with other drag performers and groups of color. She added that the group is looking forward to celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, scheduled for Oct. 13. And while there was an influx of Asian American drag representation, Kago said the group is advocating for the art of drag for Asian Americans.
“I'm really excited by how much Asian drag representation there is right now, and I like to think that we were a little bit at the forefront of that and maybe inspired some of these other groups to start up,” Kago said. “I hope that with all this Asian representation in the world, there's still a place for us.”
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