Queer Afro-Asian Relationality: The Phenomenon of Ballroom Culture in China

Abstract

With the popularization of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and other queer media, many aspects of queer culture have been absorbed into the mainstream, including ballroom culture (conversationally known as ballroom). A traditionally Afro-Latine American artform, ballroom holds roots in twentieth-century New York City where it was pioneered and cultivated by gender-nonconforming people of color—particularly Black transgender women—who were some of the most extensively disenfranchised individuals in society. Since its inception, ballroom’s reach has extended not only nationally, but internationally, as well. This paper will investigate and analyze the dissemination of ballroom in China, particularly the blurred line of appropriation versus appreciation within ballroom; the nuanced racial politics of Afro-Asian relationality; and the imperialist undertones of the Global North’s influence on queerness.