Vietnam drag queens electrify Hanoi

Cross-dressers by night, a vanguard of Vietnamese drag queens are shaking up Hanoi’s nightlife, and social norms, in a city where drag remains little known. The drag night started as a weekly viewing party for the hit TV series “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and quickly transformed into a show of its own, drawing a handful of men in drag to the stage for punchy lip-sync performances. The queens who turn out for her Saturday night parties say they have few places to perform in a city where cross-dressing remains largely obscure, unlike in the West where starlets like RuPaul, the drag queen mother, have helped to popularize it.