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Last month, I was invited to Lucca 390 by the manager, Hunt, for the 2019 China Drag Queen Contest, an event that takes place over two nights. Unlike the famous image of skyscrapers along the river in Shanghai, Lucca 390 is located in a quiet, residential area, a university campus in the west of Shanghai. From the street, the only thing identifying this LGBTQ space is a small rainbow sign. Once inside, there is the beat of dance music, the heat from hundreds of bodies, and you realize this is not a regular, tourist part of China anymore. Behind the flashy lights and lasers is Hunt who is originally from the Middle East. When he arrived in China, he was an outsider but quickly became a critical part of Shanghai’s LGBTQ community, was able to help create a thriving drag scene from what was once a small social gathering. The China Drag Queen Contest is now a major event in the city, and people come from all over China, and from other countries, to attend.
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