{"id":362924,"date":"2024-06-21T12:57:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T11:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?p=362924"},"modified":"2024-06-21T13:00:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:00:29","slug":"drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/","title":{"rendered":"Nymphia Wind: &#8216;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In conversation with Joel Kim Booster, the bananactivist reflects on <em>Drag Race\u00a0<\/em>season 16, their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight and her thirsty DMs: &#8220;Everyone wants a piece.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Interview by <strong>Joel Kim Booster<br \/>\n<\/strong>Words <strong>Sam Damshenas<br \/>\n<\/strong>Photography <strong>Kyle Galvin<br \/>\n<\/strong>Creative Direction <strong>Craig Hemming <\/strong>and <strong>Umar Sarwar<br \/>\n<\/strong>Art Direction <strong>Jack Rowe<br \/>\n<\/strong>Fashion <strong>Umar Sarwar<br \/>\n<\/strong>Creative Producer <strong>Anisa Cleaver<br \/>\n<\/strong>Hair <strong>Jason Goh<br \/>\n<\/strong>Nails <strong>Natasha Blake<br \/>\n<\/strong>Digi Tech <strong>Claire Lewington<br \/>\n<\/strong>Lighting Tech <strong>Sarah Merrett<br \/>\n<\/strong>Creative Assistant <strong>Lauren Reed-Fisk<br \/>\n<\/strong>Fashion Assistants <strong>Bradley Turner, Lily Hobman <\/strong>and <strong>Priya Nicholas<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/nymphia-wind-header.jpg\" \/><\/p><p>\u201cAfter this interview comes out, you will be inundated \u2013 flooded, even \u2013 with dick,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?s=Joel+Kim+Booster\">Joel Kim Booster<\/a> tells\/promises <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?s=Nymphia+Wind\">Nymphia Wind<\/a>. Earlier this year, the banana activist (bananactivist?) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/C6EsvxEO9VX\/?igsh=MWVybjNjMmZ5NTRldw%3D%3D\"><em>trailblazing<\/em> Jane Goodall impersonator<\/a> \u2018Padam Padam\u2019-ed her way to glory on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?s=Drag+Race\"><em>RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/television\/drag-race-season-16-taiwans-president-congratulates-herstoric-winner-nymphia-wind\/\">making history as the first East Asian champion of the OG franchise.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nymphia\u2019s triumph was widely celebrated by various alumni and stars such as \u2013 you might need to Google the following names, as they\u2019re not very popular \u2013 Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue, particularly those within her community who have been \u201chungry\u201d to see an \u201cAsian success story\u201d on-screen.<\/p>\n<p>Here, she reunites with season 16 guest judge Joel Kim Booster, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/joel-kim-booster-on-celebrating-the-asian-lgbtq-experience-in-fire-island-were-more-than-the-token-friend\/\">Emmy-nominated comedian and mastermind behind <em>Fire Island<\/em><\/a>, to reflect on life post-<em>Drag Race<\/em>, how she\u2019s observed a \u201cdrift between Nymphia and Leo\u201d and their shared experiences as East Asian celebrities. And, as the opening quote to this paragraph suggests, there\u2019s some saucy chitter-chatter about DMs of the\u2026 <em>phallic<\/em> variety. \u2018Banana Believers\u2019, rise!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Hi babe.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Hi!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Where are you Zoom-ing from?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I&#8217;m in LA.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Oh my god, I&#8217;m in New York right now. I can&#8217;t believe I&#8217;m missing you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> We swapped.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I fucking hate that. I wanted to start the conversation by congratulating you on being the first East Asian winner of a main season of <em>RuPaul&#8217;s Drag Race.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I&#8217;m sure they will clock me if I&#8217;m incorrect on this fact, but I think you are the first winner since Bebe Zahara Benet to be a winner whose English is not their first language. You obviously have a better grasp of English than other English-speaking winners, certainly, but was that a huge worry for you with some of the challenges?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> For sure, especially Snatch Game or writing or anything specific to the English language, because my grammar or the words that I can think of is very limited. Talking to RuPaul also [was a worry]. Speaking in general is not my strongest suit and I&#8217;m pretty shy, but I could always go the Jessica Wild route where I just confidently speak English or, even if it&#8217;s not good, be confident in myself. I&#8217;m shy in nature, so speaking is hard for me in general.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> It&#8217;s a double obstacle for you. I have to say, people were so hard on you when it came to some of the writing challenges. People kept saying, &#8216;She clearly speaks English so well, she&#8217;s fluid&#8217; and I was like, \u2018Bitch, try writing poetry in a language that you did not grow up speaking. Try doing witty wordplay in a language that is not your own.&#8217; It&#8217;s a completely different thing to just speaking conversationally. Props to you for doing what you did\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> For surviving!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> For surviving and doing it. I struggle to speak a little bit of Spanish, and it&#8217;s bad. To try and think about doing a pun in Spanish that would make RuPaul laugh\u2026 It\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s insane.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Very crazy. You have to find ways to survive.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> What challenge was the biggest surprise for you, and what was the biggest surprise, as in easy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Three design challenges was such a gag. As much as I love sewing, three was a bit much. There was no sleeping, it was constantly sewing. I&#8217;m a perfectionist and I love things to be made to a certain level, so having to produce in such a short amount of time was really stressful. The one that was pretty easy &#8211; not easy easy, but fun to do &#8211; was the last challenge about the book. At that point in the competition, it was the time to show who you are and be comfortable in the fact that you are you. I made this revelation, realising that there&#8217;s no point being something you&#8217;re not because Plane [Jane] and Sapphira [Crist\u00e1l] are so naturally funny and they make Ru laugh so effortlessly. In my brain I was like, &#8216;Say something funny! Make Ru laugh!\u2019 At that point I was like, \u2018Nymphia\u2026 Leo, you are not gonna make Ru laugh by trying to say something funny, you might as well give up. Even if you&#8217;re not funny, be yourself and maybe Ru will find something funny in that.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Tea! As a viewer watching from home, watching you excel in that moment and go for vulnerability was the moment where I was like, &#8216;She&#8217;s peaking at the right time.&#8217; It built so much momentum for you going into the finale. Again, as a viewer knowing the formula of this show and what RuPaul likes, I don&#8217;t think anyone expected you to go into that challenge and be genuine, bring some heart and transparency. You were able to play both sides, be funny and tell a story that was obviously deeply personal for you. Do you think that you knew at the end of that challenge that you were gonna win?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-5.jpg\" \/><\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-4.jpg\" \/><\/p><p><em><\/em><\/p><p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I knew what I was presenting, and I knew that what I presented had a very big chance to win. I also didn&#8217;t see what the other people had put out there. We slightly talked about what we wrote about in our stories off camera, so I got a sense of what the others were writing. You never know in this competition setting, there&#8217;s only so much we can see and are allowed to see.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I want to actually take a second and apologise to you a little bit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Really?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Yeah, I do. Going back to the challenge that I judged, the famous powerpoint challenge of 2024. I can&#8217;t actually remember, because it was so long ago and those judging periods take &#8211; I don&#8217;t think people understand this &#8211; like a full hour on the main stage. I was so scared going into that because I was like, &#8216;I don&#8217;t remember what the fuck I said to these people&#8217; and I didn&#8217;t know you guys yet. I hadn&#8217;t really experienced the full season. This is such a divisive moment, but people were really upset that RuPaul and the judging panel had given you some shit for this accent that you used in your comedy challenge. I wanna apologise because I don&#8217;t remember being super negative or aggressive towards you\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> No, no.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> It was weird and strange to be the only other Asian person in that room, and to have to be the deciding factor if it was okay or wasn&#8217;t okay. I was like, &#8216;I thought she was being funny?\u2019 This is the other thing, we hadn&#8217;t gotten to know each other yet. I had no idea that you were from Taiwan, and this character you were doing on stage was not just some random impression you were pulling out as a general Asian person. You probably knew that woman you were portraying on stage. It&#8217;s so strange that the show sometimes encourages queens to lean into a caricature, and then sometimes penalises a queen for leaning into a caricature, and there&#8217;s not always a through line to when they&#8217;re happy or mad about it. I wish, looking back, that I had defended you a little bit more. So, I wanted to apologise to you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I also wanted to point out that, going into the next week, [Carson Kressley] was doing a European accent\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> There&#8217;s a lot of examples of it. The fact is, it wasn&#8217;t that far off from your speaking voice. Was it scary for you when you walked into the werkroom, looked around and realised you were the only Asian person?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Mama&#8230; I accepted [there would be] at least another Asian person, and then when we all met together I looked around, left to right, &#8216;Oh, I&#8217;m the diversity hire of the season.&#8217; Growing up at university in England, I&#8217;m used to that kind of scenario, where I&#8217;m the only Asian. So, it was really great to see a fellow Asian on the judging panel when you were there!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I was so relieved to see you when I walked in. There is this unspoken Asian curse on this show, of queens not making it past a certain point in the competition. You are the first [East Asian] queen since Kim Chi to make it to the finale, and that&#8217;s crazy. That was season eight, and so it is wild to me. When you realised you were the only one, did you feel an added layer of pressure to do well?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> For sure. It was an added pressure, but I also thought I had a good chance. Being the only Asian on the show, I feel like there was an advantage but, at the same time, you&#8217;re representing an underrepresented community and they&#8217;re hungry for representation. We need to see ourselves on screen, and to see an Asian success story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I completely understand that, on so many levels. It&#8217;s this weird double-edged sword where Asian people are so relieved to see you, and so grateful, especially when you&#8217;re excelling and representing us as competent, fierce, multilayered and all these things. Then, if you&#8217;re the only representation and they don&#8217;t see themselves in you or relate to you specifically, they respond like, &#8216;Oh my god, that&#8217;s our representative?&#8217; What was the response, for the most part, from the Asian community?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> It has been so great, so fulfilling. All sorts of Asians come up to me, every Asian skin tone saying, &#8216;Thank you for representing us.&#8217; Us, you know? It&#8217;s so heartwarming to see that I, as Nymphia, was able to provide this representation for them. The response from the Latinx community was interesting because they say, &#8216;Thank you for representing the immigrants.&#8217; It has extended to this area of representation because I never grew up here, so I&#8217;m culturally a different way. My way of thinking or speaking is different. I feel like they see some sort of connection with me because they moved to this country to find better opportunities or live their dream. Nymphia represents so much! After winning, Nymphia is flying higher and higher, but Leo is still here [positions hand low]. You see this distance between Nymphia and Leo. Leo is the manual labour, trying to get Nymphia to places and to stay alive. It&#8217;s about trying to find a balance between comfortably being me and being able to provide for Nymphia.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Because you\u2019re living this sort of Hannah Montana life as Leo and Nymphia, how do you hold onto a part of yourself and keep it safe from public consumption? How do you protect yourself in this scenario, trying to balance servicing both Nymphia and Leo?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/drag-race-nymphia-wind.jpg\" \/><\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-2.jpg\" \/><\/p><p><em><\/em><\/p><p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I\u2019m currently learning the process of setting boundaries. Leo is a more private person, very shy and stresses out. Leo is currently very neglected! My goal this year is to get all the gigs I can and be as tired as I can, because this year is all about the gigs. Because of that goal, Leo has to be sacrificed. I\u2019m also observing this drift between Nymphia and Leo, and I\u2019m still exploring what that is and being more aware of how to be more graceful to myself. It relates to the last challenge, where I was talking about drag as escapism and escaping into another identity. Just because I said that on national TV doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s all resolved, so I\u2019m still going through that learning. But, there are conscious efforts and realisations that Leo needs to be taken care of!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I have to imagine that a big part of taking care of Leo is staying connected to your family, and I mean both your blood family and drag family. How important has that been as a stabilising force in your life, especially now?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Being able to stay grounded amongst all of this is [because of my] friends. When I went back to Taiwan in May, I felt so comfortable. I was back in my city, my friends and drag family were there, and it felt so right. I felt so\u2026 reconnected. It\u2019s important to have these friends and the space to feel comfortable, and not have those friends who are going to use you or have some sort of gain from you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I\u2019m sure you\u2019re experiencing this on a much larger level, but there are people in LA, for instance, who, before my movie came out, could not have cared if I lived or died. Like, did not pay attention to me. I was not invited to the afters. I had to send people my Instagram to prove that I deserved an invite. Typical, crazy, LA bullshit. Now they\u2019re suddenly like, \u2018Oh my god, you have to be there!\u2019 you know? Have you experienced a taste of that yet, that change in people\u2019s attitudes toward you?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Very subtly, because the friends that are close with me are\u2026 good people. We vibrate on a similar frequency. It\u2019s chill and, I would say, earthy? Down to earth. There have been some [people] that have jumped out of nowhere and have more attention towards me, but I\u2019m kind of oblivious to that. If you feel the need to\u2026 what\u2019s that word when you rub against someone? If you feel the need to put all your energy onto me, then that\u2019s fine, I don\u2019t necessarily have to receive it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I get nervous when I meet someone new because you never know what their intentions are. When they want to grab a picture with you and you\u2019re like, \u2018What? Is there a hidden motive, or are you just a friendly person?\u2019 Speaking of friends post-<em>Drag Race<\/em> though, I wanted to get into this close relationship with Plane Jane. There\u2019s been hints here and there and it does seem like it\u2019s sometimes trolling, and sometimes it seems genuine. Put it all on the line right now: how do you really feel about Plane Jane?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Plane Jane either needs an assistant or to get her life together. Plane Jane\u2019s fun to be around because we Asians like to talk shit. We\u2019re not necessarily the most gracious, we\u2019re very direct and straightforward. Nice is not our priority. She\u2019s just fun to be around and we get along really well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> It\u2019s funny, I think I even tweeted this at some point during the season, Plane got a lot of shit for being the shady queen of the season. But I was like, \u2018Nymphia\u2019s over here with some comments herself, both in the confessionals and werkroom. There is some major shit coming from Nymphia\u2019s workspace right now, and no one is addressing it!\u2019 Plane Jane did you a favour by taking the heat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> She did!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> If she wasn\u2019t there they\u2019d all be saying, \u2018Nymphia, the bully\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Well, Q always likes to scream my name, \u2018The Bully!\u2019. If I had the chance to do any sort of <em>All Stars<\/em>, I feel like I would go in and be more of an absolute C-U-N-T. The first time around, I was getting used to what was happening. I was stressed out and forgot to throw shade because I was in the confessional like, \u2018I don\u2019t know what to say, help me!\u2019 Now I know the format, I\u2019ll be more comfortable to talk shit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> It\u2019s so weird coming in as a judge and fan of the show at the top seven, going into the top six, because they don\u2019t tell you, \u2018This person\u2019s a frontrunner, this person\u2019s\u2026\u2019 They don\u2019t give you context. Watching the season back and seeing the edit, how they portrayed everybody, was there anything that surprised you? Anything that felt off about the way someone was portrayed? Or the narrative that was being spun by the show?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I would say Q\u2019s edit. It\u2019s not like Q isn\u2019t like that, it\u2019s just with reality TV, you don\u2019t see the whole picture. We experienced Q off-camera, on-camera, left, right, everywhere. We experienced Q, the whole package.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I mean, if you did a supercut of all my worst, terrible moments where I was in my feelings\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s very that. I was always explaining to people that Q wasn\u2019t just like that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Going back a little bit to Leo\u2026 Love life, what does that look like? Where is it heading? Is it even possible to service that part of your life right now? I\u2019m sure there are a million people sliding into the DM\u2019s with disgusting photos for you\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-3.jpg\" \/><\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-6.jpg\" \/><\/p><p><em><\/em><\/p><p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I think the vibrations I put out don\u2019t attract that kind of people. I\u2019m a bit cold and distant, so people don\u2019t think they have a chance with me and don\u2019t approach. That\u2019s what I\u2019m gathering! I don\u2019t really get a lot of dick pics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Well, we\u2019re putting it out there: get in Nymphia\u2019s DM\u2019s now. I expect after this interview comes out, you will be inundated, flooded even, with dick.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I do have to say, going to the UK\u2026 For some reason I went to a rave and there has been, erm\u2026 a lot of requests. There\u2019s just an attention of men that I never got before TV. As a boy I would go out and get no attention at all. After I go to this rave, after appearing on TV, everyone wants a piece. It\u2019s sad at the same time because where were all these people before TV? They\u2019re all suddenly appearing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> It\u2019s weird because people will say, \u2018That\u2019s awesome for you, you suddenly have access to these boys that didn\u2019t look at you before you were gay famous.\u2019 I always have to tell people, \u2018That doesn\u2019t feel good to me!\u2019 It doesn\u2019t feel good to know that they\u2019re only into me because I\u2019ve been on TV a couple times. It doesn\u2019t make me feel confident or good about myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I think being Asian adds another layer to this kind of discourse. Being Asian, you have to realise that you are\u2026 <em>a type<\/em>. Sometimes you look at these men and can tell who are the Asian lovers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> We can say it: the rice queens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> You can tell which men are the rice queens. I\u2019m not saying every man who approaches us are rice queens, I\u2019m just saying that men who approach an Asian is probably a rice queen and you\u2019d have to look into their previous history to really know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Sometimes they\u2019re like, \u2018Gotta catch \u2018em all!\u2019 I feel like we are the white whales for these rice queens now. They\u2019re like, \u2018Gotta get the famous ones too!\u2019 Feeling fetishised doesn\u2019t make me feel powerful or good, and it\u2019s so weird having to navigate that. Dating is hard enough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Do they like you for being Asian, or because you\u2019re on TV? There\u2019s so many layers to judge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> This has happened a couple of times to me, where a guy will be talking to me at a party and we\u2019re vibing. He tells me how loves my work or whatever and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, okay! This is it\u2026\u2019 I go to make out and then realise they aren\u2019t into you like that, they are simply a fan. Now, you\u2019re humiliated because you misread the vibe. So, beware of that scenario! It can and will happen. Nymphia, it will be the darkest moment of your entire life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m always very passive and I never take the first step.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> Before we close out this lovely conversation, is there something you\u2019re looking forward to after this year? I know you were crowned five seconds ago, but is there something you\u2019re looking forward to when your life calms down a bit?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I\u2019m very much looking forward to artistic collaborations; collaborating with different personalities, artists and brands. There\u2019s so much possibility and excitement for me in that. It\u2019s [entirely possible that], I could collaborate with performance artists like Marina Abramovi\u0107 or singers like FKA Twigs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I mean, that would be fucking sick. What would your FKA Twigs collab look like? Where do you even begin?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nymphia:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know, maybe something related to movement. Through collaboration, you find connection and ways to work together. We can unify, live on this planet and find ways to broaden the conversation of acceptance and unification. How do we spread this outside of our little bubble? For instance, when I\u2019m thinking of collaboration, it\u2019s talking with &#8211; I don\u2019t know &#8211; a Republican about how they see life, how I see life. That\u2019s a rough example! Through collaboration, you reach out into different sectors of humanity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joel:<\/strong> I\u2019m envisioning the Nymphia Wind, Marjorie Taylor Greene Instagram Live happening in the near future. I want to collab with you. I\u2019m going to make you a stand-up comic. I will pull it out of you, if it\u2019s the last thing I do!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>This cover story features in the July 2024 edition of GAY TIMES Magazine. To read the full issue, click <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/gaytimes\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-362963\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/nymphia-wind-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"695\" height=\"869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/nymphia-wind-cover.jpg 695w, https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/nymphia-wind-cover-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 695px) 100vw, 695px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In conversation with Joel Kim Booster, the bananactivist reflects on Drag Race\u00a0season 16, their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight and her thirsty DMs: &#8220;Everyone wants a piece.&#8221;\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":362929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,557,531,665],"tags":[636,10688,530,5710,1820,644,12489,18712,536],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nymphia Wind: &#039;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nymphia Wind and Joel Kim Booster discuss Drag Race season 16 and their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nymphia Wind: &#039;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nymphia Wind and Joel Kim Booster discuss Drag Race season 16 and their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GAY TIMES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gaytimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-21T11:57:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-21T12:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/nymphia-wind-header-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"695\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"436\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sam Damshenas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@samdamshenas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gaytimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sam Damshenas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sam Damshenas\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26c9cf714baced5dc8d01904295f787c\"},\"headline\":\"Nymphia Wind: &#8216;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-21T11:57:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-21T12:00:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\"},\"wordCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Drag Race\",\"Fire Island\",\"Interviews\",\"Joel Kim Booster\",\"LGBTQ+ TV\",\"Long Reads\",\"Loot\",\"NYMPHIA WIND\",\"RuPaul's Drag Race\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Drag\",\"Originals\",\"Television\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\",\"name\":\"Nymphia Wind: 'Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-21T11:57:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-21T12:00:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Nymphia Wind and Joel Kim Booster discuss Drag Race season 16 and their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nymphia Wind: &#8216;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/\",\"name\":\"GAY TIMES\",\"description\":\"Amplifying queer voices.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"GAY TIMES\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cd-gaytimes.j.layershift.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GT_ICON_ILLUSTRATOR_BLACK_RGB-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cd-gaytimes.j.layershift.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GT_ICON_ILLUSTRATOR_BLACK_RGB-1.png\",\"width\":11710,\"height\":11710,\"caption\":\"GAY TIMES\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gaytimes\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gaytimes\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gaytimes\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/gaytimes\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.co.uk\/gaytimesmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/GayTimesChannel\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gay_Times\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26c9cf714baced5dc8d01904295f787c\",\"name\":\"Sam Damshenas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7743490aea9fb232439a8166d15b1a39?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7743490aea9fb232439a8166d15b1a39?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sam Damshenas\"},\"description\":\"sam@gaytimes.co.uk\",\"sameAs\":[\"samdamshenas\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/samdamshenas\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/author\/sam-damshenas\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nymphia Wind: 'Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story'","description":"Nymphia Wind and Joel Kim Booster discuss Drag Race season 16 and their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nymphia Wind: 'Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story'","og_description":"Nymphia Wind and Joel Kim Booster discuss Drag Race season 16 and their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/","og_site_name":"GAY TIMES","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gaytimes","article_published_time":"2024-06-21T11:57:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-06-21T12:00:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":695,"height":436,"url":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/nymphia-wind-header-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sam Damshenas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@samdamshenas","twitter_site":"@gaytimes","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sam Damshenas","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/"},"author":{"name":"Sam Damshenas","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26c9cf714baced5dc8d01904295f787c"},"headline":"Nymphia Wind: &#8216;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#8217;","datePublished":"2024-06-21T11:57:31+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-21T12:00:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/"},"wordCount":13,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Drag Race","Fire Island","Interviews","Joel Kim Booster","LGBTQ+ TV","Long Reads","Loot","NYMPHIA WIND","RuPaul's Drag Race"],"articleSection":["Culture","Drag","Originals","Television"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/","name":"Nymphia Wind: 'Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-06-21T11:57:31+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-21T12:00:29+00:00","description":"Nymphia Wind and Joel Kim Booster discuss Drag Race season 16 and their shared experience as East Asians in the spotlight.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/originals\/drag-race-nymphia-wind-in-conversation-with-joel-kim-booster\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nymphia Wind: &#8216;Asian people have been hungry for a Drag Race success story&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/","name":"GAY TIMES","description":"Amplifying queer voices.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#organization","name":"GAY TIMES","url":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cd-gaytimes.j.layershift.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GT_ICON_ILLUSTRATOR_BLACK_RGB-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cd-gaytimes.j.layershift.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GT_ICON_ILLUSTRATOR_BLACK_RGB-1.png","width":11710,"height":11710,"caption":"GAY TIMES"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gaytimes","https:\/\/twitter.com\/gaytimes","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gaytimes\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/gaytimes","https:\/\/www.pinterest.co.uk\/gaytimesmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/GayTimesChannel","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gay_Times"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26c9cf714baced5dc8d01904295f787c","name":"Sam Damshenas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7743490aea9fb232439a8166d15b1a39?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7743490aea9fb232439a8166d15b1a39?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sam Damshenas"},"description":"sam@gaytimes.co.uk","sameAs":["samdamshenas","https:\/\/twitter.com\/samdamshenas"],"url":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/author\/sam-damshenas\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362924"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363014,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362924\/revisions\/363014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}