台北的變裝秀仍然是酷兒人士重要的娛樂活動，也是該市酷兒夜生活的重要特色。雖然先前對台北變裝秀場景的研究聚焦於透過變裝表演建構多元性別，但尚未有研究探討變裝在表演者生活更廣泛背景中的角色。為了填補這一空白，本論文進行了四次對台灣變裝皇后的訪談。使用生活敘事解釋方法（BNIM），讓變裝皇后構建他們的變裝生涯故事。在初步敘事完成後，根據BNIM方法論對變裝皇后進行了後續提問。總計收集了九小時的訪談數據。鑑於酷兒理論傾向於將變裝分析簡化為性別表演，以及它在台灣持續的殖民性和帝國主義認識論，本論文採用布爾迪厄的場域理論來分析每位皇后的敘事。通過這四個案例研究，塑造台北變裝場域的原則浮現了。台北的變裝受到兩個相互競爭的原則驅動：商品原則和主體性原則。商品原則代表由場域創造的商業壓力及變裝轉化為商品的後果。主體性原則將變裝視為自我表達的藝術方式，讓變裝皇后有權探索自己的身份和過去。在台北的變裝場域中，商品原則處於主導地位，而主體性原則讓變裝皇后能夠抵抗商品化的負面心理影響。此外，這些敘事揭示了變裝作為克服創傷的治療性影響。這些發現表明，台灣的變裝提供了獨特的進一步研究機會，並為理論化變裝提供了替代性資源。

Drag shows remain an important recreational activity for queer people in Taipei, and an important feature of queer nightlife in the city. While previous research on Taipei’s drag scene has focused on the construction of multivalent genders through drag performance, no research has looked at the role drag plays in the larger context of performers lives. Attempting to fill this gap, this thesis carried out four, minimally structured interviews with drag queens in Taiwan. Using Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM), queens were asked to construct the story of their drag career. After the initial narrative was finished, queens were asked follow-up questions in accordance with BNIM methodologies. In total, nine hours of interview data was gathered. Given both queer theory’s tendency to reduce analysis of drag to gender performance, and it’s perpetuation of coloniality and imperialist epistemologies in Taiwan, this thesis deployed Bourdieuvian field theory to analysis each queen’s narratives. Through these four case studies, the principles that structure the field of drag in Taipei emerged. Drag in Taipei is motivated by two competing principles: the commodity principle and the subjectivity principle. The commodity principle represents the commercial pressures created by the field and the consequent transformation of drag into a commodity. The subjectivity principle represents drag as an artistic mode of self-expression, wherein queens are empowered to explore their own identities and pasts through drag. In the field of drag in Taipei, the commodity principle sits in a dominant position, while the subjectivity principle allows drag queens to resist the negative psychological impacts of commodification. Additionally, these narratives reveal the therapeutic impact of drag as a vehicle for overcoming trauma. These findings suggest that drag in Taiwan presents unique opportunities for further research and offer alternative resources for theorizing drag.

Balzer, C. (2005) ‘The Great Drag Queen Hype: Thoughts on Cultural Globalisation and Autochthony’, Paideuma, 51, pp. 111–131.
Barnett, J. and Johnson, C. (2013) ‘We Are All Royalty: Narrative Comparison of a Drag Queen and King’, Journal of Leisure Research, 45, pp. 677–694. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18666/JLR-2013-V45-I5-4369. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Barret, R. (2017) From Drag Queens to Leathermen: Language, Gender, and Gay Male Subcultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bie, B. and Tang, L. (2016) ‘Culture and Chinese gay men’s coming out narratives: Connecting social relationship to co-cultural theory.’, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2016.1142602. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Bourdieu, P. (1983) ‘The Forms of Capital’, in J.G. Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, pp. 241–258.
Bourdieu, P. (1993) The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
Branton, S. and Compton, C. (2021) ‘There’s No Such Thing as a Gay Bar: Co-Sexuality and the Neoliberal Branding of Queer Spaces’, Management Communication Quarterly, 35(I), pp. 69–95.
Brubaker, R. (2002) ‘Ethnicity without groups’, European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie / Europäisches Archiv für Soziologie, 43(2), pp. 163–189.
Brubaker, R. (2013) ‘Categories of analysis and categories of practice: a note on the study of Muslims in European countries of immigration’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(1), pp. 1–8. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2012.729674. (Accessed: 10 October 2023).
Buck, J. (2019) ‘Et Tu Ru? Entrepreneurship and the Commodification of Drag in RuPaul’s Drag Race’, for(e)dialogue, 3(1). Available at: https://doi.org/10.29311/for(e)dialogue.v3i1.3144. (Accessed: 3 December 2023).
Butler, J. (1990) Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (2011) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. Taylor & Francis.
Chang, B. (2008) ‘What’s in a Name? The Nationalisation of Traditional Opera in Taiwan’, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 6, pp. 89–104. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2006.tb00151.x. (Accessed: 5 November 2023).
Chang, H.-Y.B. (1997) ‘A theatre of Taiwaneseness: politics, ideologies, and Gezaixi’, TDR (Cambridge, Mass.), 41(2), pp. 111–130.
Chen, L. (2011) ‘Queering Taiwan: In Search of Nationalism’s Other’, Modern China, 37(4), pp. 384–421. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700411409328. (Accessed: 10 September 2023).
Chen-Dedman, A. (2022) ‘Tongzhi Sovereignty: Taiwan’s lgbt Rights Movement and the Misplaced Critique of Homonationalism’, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, 5(2), pp. 1–30. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/24688800-20221267. (Accessed: 3 August 2023)
Choonara S. (2009) “Women on women: exploring the possibilities of a feminist ethnograpghy in Pakistan” presented at WEMC Symposium: Interrogating Gendered Power Structures: Developing a transformative research framework for women’s empowerment in Muslim contexts. 25 February 2009, City University of Hong Kong.
Conan (2022) ‘臺灣知名變裝皇后 Yolanda ：「變裝不是偽裝，而是讓本來的自己更有魅力！」 | 女子學’, 21 October. Available at: https://share99.com/be-yourself-yolanda-drag-queen (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Corbally, M. and O’Neill, C.S. (2014a) ‘An introduction to the biographical narrative interpretive method’, Nurse Researcher, 21(5), pp. 34–39. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7748/nr.21.5.34.e1237. (Accessed: 5 September 2023).
Drag Queen引領新時尚：Café Dalida的變裝伸展台（中 ∕ 英文版） (2020). Taipei, Taiwan. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGXAhziOWPE&t=56s&ab_channel=%E8%87%BA%E5%8C%97%E5%B8%82%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9CTaipeiCityGovernment. (Accessed: 3 November 2023)
Edelman, A.M. (2023) ‘Drag Race to the Bottom’, Dissent, 70(1), pp. 11–15. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/dss.2023.0023. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Farrer, J. (1999) ‘Disco “Super-Culture”: Consuming Foreign Sex in the Chinese Disco’, Sexualities, 2(2), pp. 147–166. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/136346079900200201. (Accessed: 16 August 2023).
Farrier, S. (2016) ‘That Lip-Synching Feeling: Drag Performance as Digging the Past’, in A. Campbell and S. Farrier (eds) Queer Dramaturgies: International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK (Contemporary Performance InterActions), pp. 192–209. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137411846_11. (Accessed: 22 July 2023).
Feldman, Z. and Hakim, J. (2020) ‘From Paris is Burning to #dragrace: social media and the celebrification of drag culture’, Celebrity Studies, 11(4), pp. 386–401. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2020.1765080. (Accessed: 24 November 2023).
Garcia, S. (2021) Dragging up Taiwan: The Construction of Queer Genders through Drag Performance in Taipei (扮裝台灣:台北扮裝表演中的酷兒性別建構) Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Taipei: National Taiwan University.
Gil, V.E. (2002) ‘The Cut Sleeve Revisited: A Contemporary Account of Male Homosexuality’, in S.D. Blum and L.M. Jensen (eds) China Off Center. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press (Mapping the Margins of the Middle Kingdom), pp. 238–246. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqsrg.24 (Accessed: 3 August 2023).
Goodson, I.F. and Gill, S.R. (2011) ‘The Narrative Turn in Social Research’, Counterpoints, 386, pp. 17–33.
Harvey, C. et al. (2020) ‘Bourdieu, strategy and the field of power’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 73, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102199. (Accessed: 3 October 2023).
Heller, M. (2020) ‘What’s in a Name?: Redefining the Discourse of Gender-Bending’, in M. Heller Queering Drag. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (Redefining the Discourse of Gender-Bending), pp. 1–39. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvtv93wm.5. (Accessed: 12 September 2023).
Herek, G.M. (2007) ‘Confronting Sexual Stigma and Prejudice: Theory and Practice’, Journal of Social Issues, 63(4), pp. 905–925. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00544.x. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Hinsch, B. (1990) Passions of the cut sleeve : the male homosexual tradition in China. Berkeley : University of California Press. Available at: http://archive.org/details/passionsofcutsle0000hins (Accessed: 3 August 2023). (Accessed: 30 September 2023).
Hioe, B. (2022) ‘The ‘90s and 2000s LGBT Party Scene in Taiwan: A Conversation with Victor Cheng - Electric Soul’, Electric Soul, February. Available at: https://www.electricsoul.com/magazine/the-90s-and-2000s-lgbt-party-scene-in-taiwan-a-conversation-with-victor-cheng (Accessed: 28 August 2023).
Hodes, C. and Sandoval, J. (2018) ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: A study in the commodification of white ruling-class femininity and the etiolation of drag’ Studies in Costume & Camp Performance, 3(2), pp. 149–167. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1386/scp.3.2.149_1. (Accessed: 3 December 2023).
hooks, b. (1992) ‘Is Paris Burning?’, in b. hooks Black Looks: Race and Representation. South End Press.
hooks, b. (2016) ‘Beyoncé’s Lemonade is capitalist money-making at its best’ The Guardian, 11 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/11/capitalism-of-beyonce-lemonade-album (Accessed: 14 October 2023).
Hsiao, B., Yang, E. and Busz, K. (2023) ‘A deep dive into Taiwan’s drag scene: the art of radical self-expression - Focus Taiwan’, Focus Taiwan - CNA English News, 24 October. Available at: https://focustaiwan.tw/culture/202310240011 (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Huang, H.T.M. (2011) Queer Politics and Sexual Modernity in Taiwan. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Huang, L.-T.S. and Chiang, L.-H.N. (2013) ‘Body Image: A Comparative Study Across Gender, Place and Culture Among Taiwanese and International Students’, Environment and Worlds, 27, pp. 1–30.
Kao, Y.-C. (2021) ‘The coloniality of queer theory: The effects of “homonormativity” on transnational Taiwan’s path to equality’, Sexualities, pp. 1–18.
Kates, S.M. (2001) ‘Camp As Cultural Capital: Further Elaboration of a Consumption Taste’, ACR North American Advances, NA-28. Available at: https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/8500/volumes/v28/NA-28/full (Accessed: 8 September 2023).
Kong, T.S.K. (2019) ‘Transnational Queer Sociological Analysis of Sexual Identity and Civic‐political Activism in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China’, The British Journal of Sociology, 70(5). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12697. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Kristeva, J. (1982) Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3684782?origin=crossref (Accessed: 17 August 2023).
Lefevre, F. (2021) ‘Lip-Syncing for Our Lives: Queering Dissent in Queer & Now a Lip-Sync Spectacular’, in T. Rosenberg, S. D’Urso, and A.R. Winget (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminisms in Contemporary Performance. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 243–262. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69555-2_14. (Accessed: 3 August 2023).
Lewin, E. (1993) ‘Lesbian and Gay Kinship: Kath Weston’s “Families We Choose” and Contemporary Anthropology’, Signs, 18(4), pp. 974–979.
Lim, S.H. (2008) ‘How to be Queer in Taiwan: Translation, Appropriation, and the Construction of Queer Identity in Taiwan’, in F. Martin (ed) AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, pp. 235–250.
Litwiller, F. (2020) ‘Normative drag culture and the making of precarity’, Leisure Studies, 39(4), pp. 600–612. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2020.1800798. (Accessed: 5 November 2023).
Liu, P. (2015) Queer Marxism in Two Chinas. Durham: Duke University Press.
Liu, W. (2017) ‘Toward a queer psychology of affect: restarting from shameful places’, Subjectivity, 10(1), pp. 44–62. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-016-0014-6. (Accessed: 25 October 2023).
Lorimer, Z. (2020) ‘Representing the Underrepresented at Taipei Pride 2020’, Ketagalan Media, 29 October. Available at: https://ketagalanmedia.com/2020/10/29/representing-the-underrepresented-at-taipei-pride-2020/ (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Kling, G. (2014) ‘Pathways to Power: Class, Hyper-Agency and the French Corporate Elite - Mairi Maclean, Charles Harvey, Gerhard Kling, 2014’, Organizational Studies, 35(6). Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0170840613509919 (Accessed: 15 August 2023).
Martin, J.L. (2003) ‘What Is Field Theory?’, American Journal of Sociology, 109(1), pp. 1–49. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/375201. (Accessed: 16 September 2023).
McCormack, M. and Wignall, L. (2022) ‘Drag Performers’ Perspectives on the Mainstreaming of British Drag: Towards a Sociology of Contemporary Drag’, Sociology, 56(1), pp. 3–20. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211008387. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Moen, T. (2006) ‘Reflections on the Narrative Research Approach’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(4), pp. 56–69. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500405. (Accessed: 7 December 2023).
Moran, L., Green, L. and Warwick, L. (2022) ‘Exploring Ethical Dimensions Associated with “Pushing for PINs” and Probing: A Critical Commentary on Key Features of the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) with “Vulnerable” and Other Populations’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, p. 16094069221085791. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221085791. (Accessed: 23 August 2023).
Morgan, S. (2020) Here’s the Tea on Taipei’s Sickening Drag Scene (TAIPEI Quarterly 2020 Autumn Vol.21), Taipei Travel. Available at: https://www.travel.taipei/en/pictorial/article/24598 (Accessed: 4 September 2023).
Moskowitz, M. (2008) ‘Multiple Virginity and Other Contested Realities in Taipei’s Foreign Club Culture’, Sexualities, 11(3), pp. 327–351.
Newton, E. (1979) Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Available at: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3634939.html (Accessed: 17 August 2023).
Paris is Burning (1990). Off-White Productions.
Passa, D. (2021) ‘“You all are sisters! We are all family!” The Construction of Parenthood in Rupaul’s Drag Race’, Linguaculture, 12(2), pp. 127–144.
Prieur, A. and Savage, M. (2011) ‘Updating cultural capital theory: A discussion based on studies in Denmark and in Britain’, Poetics, 39(6), pp. 566–580. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2011.09.002. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Puar, J.K. (2007) Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham: Duke University Press.
Puar, J.K. (2013) ‘Rethinking Homonationalism’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45(2), pp. 336–339. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/s002074381300007x. (Accessed: 16 November 2022).
Renders, H. and De Haan, B. (eds) (2014) Theoretical Discussions of Biography: Approaches from History, Microhistory, and Life Writing. Amsterdam: Brill
RuPaul interview on Arsenio 1993 [Talk Show] (1993). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbINxJJY7u4&ab_channel=MORMusicClips. (Accessed: 12 August 2023)
Rushbrook, D. (2002) ‘Cities, Queer Space, and the Cosmopolitan Tourist’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 8(1), pp. 183–206.
Salahuddin, T., Ahmed, A. and Nasim, I. (2018) ‘Women Empowerment: an Ethnographic Exploration’, Pakistan Journal of Economic Studies, 1(1), pp. 59–78.
Sedgwick, E.K. and Frank, A. (1995) ‘Shame in the Cybernetic Fold: Reading Silvan Tomkins’, Critical Inquiry, 21(2), pp. 496–522.
Silan, W. and Munkejord, M.C. (2022) ‘Hmali’, rgrgyax and Gaga: a study of Tayal elders reclaiming their Indigenous identities in Taiwan’, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 18(3), pp. 354–363. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801221119214. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Silvio, T. (1999) ‘Reflexivity, Bodily Praxis, and Identity in Taiwanese Opera’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 5(4), p. 585.
Silvio, T. (2008) ‘Lesbianism and Taiwanese Localism in The Silent Trush’, in f. Martin (ed) AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities, Champaign: University of Illinois Press pp. 217–234.
Squire, C. et al. (eds) (2014) What is narrative research? London: Bloomsbury (Research methods series).
TAI Project (no date) YU CHENG-TA 余政達. Available at: https://www.yuchengta.com/tai-project-2017 (Accessed: 17 October 2023).
Thomas, C. (2018) ‘INTERVIEW: Down and Dirty with Taipei Drag Star Magnolia La Manga’, The News Lens International Edition, 30 September. Available at: https://international.thenewslens.com/article/186080 (Accessed: 2 August 2023).
Tsai, W.-H.S. (2013) ‘“There Are No Ugly Women, Only Lazy Ones”: Taiwanese Women’s Social Comparison with Mediated Beauty Images’, Advertising & Society Review, 13(4). Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/21/article/497054 (Accessed: 14 October 2023).
Tseng S.-P.(曾秀萍) (2016) ‘Gender Politics of Native Lesbians: Lesbian Representation and Nativism Imagination in Silent Thrush (鄉土女同志的現身與失聲：《失聲畫眉》的女同志再現、鄉土想像與性別政治)’, 淡江中文學報, (35), pp. 1–35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.6187/tkujcl.201612.35-1. (Accessed: 27 November 2023).
Vajda, J. (2007) ‘Two Survivor Cases: Therapeutic Effect as Side Product of the Biographical Narrative Interview’, Journal of Social Work Practice, 21(1), pp. 89–102. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02650530601173664. (Accessed: 12 October 2023).
Valentine, D. (2018) ‘Reviewing Mother Camp 50 Years Late’, American Anthropologist, 120(4), pp. 852–853. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13147.
Wang, F.T.Y., Bih, H. and Brennan, D.J. (2009) ‘Have they really come out: gay men and their parents in Taiwan’, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 11(3), pp. 285–296. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050802572711. (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Wang, H.L. (2014) ‘Comparisons for Com-passion: Exploring the Structures of Feeling in East Asia’, in S.M. Shih and P.H. Liao (eds) Comparatizing Taiwan. Oxfordshire: Routledge, pp. 59–79.
Wengraf, T. (2008) Qualitative Research Interviewing. Sage Publications, Ltd.
Wengraf, T. (2013) ‘Interviewing for Life-Histories, Lived Periods and Situations, and Ongoing Personal Experiences Using the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method: the BNIM Short Guide’.
Witts, R. (2017) ‘Live from Liperpool: lip-synching as a radical act.: Royal Musical Association Annual Conference’, in. Available at: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/schoolofthearts/documents/music/RMA,Conference,Brochure,2017,Abstracts.pdf (Accessed: 27 November 2023).
Wu, C.-J. (2007) ‘Performing Postmodern Taiwan: Gender, Cultural Hybridity, and the Male Cross-dressing Show’ Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Wesleyan University.
Yang Y. and Wu D. (2021) ‘A drag queen who is not an artist? Complaints about bailout rejected by Ministry of Culture’ (‘變裝皇后非藝文工作者？ 怨紓困遭文化部駁) Available at: https://www.ftvnews.com.tw/news/detail/2021630L13M1 (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Yeh, A. (2023) ‘Cafe Dalida: Drag and the City’, Taipei Times, 15 July. Available at: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2023/07/15/2003803203 (Accessed: 3 November 2023).
Yu, S. (2008) ‘Bring on the Queens’, Taipei Times, 25 August, p. 7.