A bundle of energy, talent and beauty, Yuhua Hamasaki, one of the most well liked and popular faces of drag today in New York’s gay nightlife, has once again agreed to speak with Get Out! in celebration of Chinese New Year. This tiny, dynamically spirited queen holds many titles and is considered one of the most vivacious and perky performers on the scene. Even her fellow queens love her!
What have you been up to since we last spoke?
I’m a blonde now! Since Donald Trump is running for president, I think it’ll be best if I try to fit in and look like a citizen in case he wins.
How are you going to be celebrating Chinese New Year?
I won’t be prostituting in Chinatown since everyone Chinese will be home celebrating. I will have to hit other neighborhoods that won’t be celebrating to make my money that night.
Which do you get more excited for, Chinese or regular New Year’s Eve?
Both! Why should I get excited for one when I can get excited for both?!
What do you like best about performing drag and why?
I have too much personality as a short person, but my personality fits right in when I’m in drag. My personality is kind of the same when in and out of drag, except I have less makeup on when I’m not in it. I enjoy performing because people get to go inside of my head, and they’re at the show specifically to listen to what I have to say. For the time being on stage, I get to be in command for the direction of people’s moods.
Is there a favorite song you like performing or a particular audience you like to perform in front of?
I love performing for enthusiastic people! They give me back energy to feed off of to keep the show moving along, and they challenge me to become a better performer.
Do you have a drag mom?
I do not have a drag mother specifically. It was all from trial and error, watching videos online and asking questions whenever I needed help. But if there’s another drag queen who is older and has the last name Hamasaki, please let me know. She could be my unanswered drag mother!
What inspired you most of all?
I was told that there’s a green card at the end of all this drag that I’m doing.
What’s new for Yuhua in 2016 and beyond?
I’m a drag queen, not a psychic! I don’t know what’s in the future. I know how to cross-dress, but don’t know how to read into the future. It’s sad, I know.
Going back to Chinese New Year, what animal is it the year of, and what year animal were you born in?
I was born in 1990, the year of the horse! Maybe that’s why I like to work like a horse, or maybe that’s the closet animal that sounds like the word “whores.”
