This is our biggest show yet.
-Right. -Quick, quick, quick.
How you feeling?
Like I'm about to burst.
Just a little antsy, a little nervous.
To get here has been very challenging.
We don't have a risk assessment for that!
Just enjoy and just bounce back from anything
that might go slightly awry.
We're risking everything.
Oh, my gosh!
Three deep breaths
to cleanse the aura.
Take it off, take it off!
Bring in more.
Let it out with a ha…
OK. Awaken the body.
You know what the old Asian ladies do?
I need this to go well
because it means the world to me.
-Are you ready? -Yes!
I'm Shane.
Looking back, it makes me a bit sad
to think about how much effort I put into
trying not to be feminine.
I can remember being quite heartbroken
that I didn't get cast as the Prince
in this production of Cinderella.
And then one of the other boys told me,
"Of course you didn't, you're so girly."
And everyone laughed.
And so even though I loved theatre
and I loved performing when I was a kid,
I saw that career as completely unviable for me.
It wasn't until I came to London
and I discovered drag
beyond just men dressed as women.
When I saw trans people doing drag,
I saw non-binary and queer people doing drag,
and just really expressing themselves
in whatever way felt authentic.
I think that everyone could learn something
from doing drag, trying it out.
If you put on a heel or dress
or a bit of lipstick and eyelash,
maybe all of them, and you see how you feel.
Do you like it? Do you hate it?
And just kind of sit with those feelings.
Ask yourself some questions.
'Cause that's what I originally did,
and it helped me discover who I am.
It totally changed my life.
It may have even saved it.
Life for a femme,
Asian, nonbinary trans person is risky
from the moment I walk out my front door.
And to be on stage and be visible,
that's even riskier.
I'm willing to take that risk
because I don't wanna hide,
trying to exist in the shadows.
When I tell people that I am a drag queen,
they're very surprised.
As an AFAB person,
which means "assigned female at birth",
drag is already quite hard to do.
And then I've got the barriers
of being
a queer, Asian curvy woman.
I've been in this industry for nearly 10 years.
And I'm still having to prove that I can do
everything just as well,
just as good.
Having to constantly
prove myself all the time.
And it gets frustrating.
But if this is what I wanna do, I'm gonna do it.
And I'll break through all your freakin' walls,
every single one.
If that means that gives
the next curvy, Asian, queer person,
an easier path to get through
to be able to do what they're meant to be doing,
then I'll do it.
I've often found in the cabaret community
that they want me on their lineup
because they want it to look diverse.
They don't actually want me as a person.
They just want the idea of what a Japanese person is.
So, if I ever came across
another Asian in the cabaret scene,
I was like, I need to know you.
We should have each other's back, make own platforms,
we should tell our own stories.
And that's kind of what led to starting
The Bitten Peach.
5, 6, 7, 8.
Right, left.
Out.
The Bitten Peach is the UK's only
gender-diverse, pan-Asian
drag and cabaret collective.
The founders, which are me, Lilly and Evelyn,
are very excited about doing our biggest show ever,
but simultaneously a bit stressed
and a little nervous
because there is a lot of pressure
that we do something big.
And so we've made a show about what it means
to be both queer and Asian.
I get a chance to show the world
that my story and my identity matter.
I hope we have, like, hundreds of tickets sold.
Hope for the best, all the best.
Don't stress, do your best.
So I'm actually gonna tie it like higher and tighter.
Like…
And then I've rhinestoned some underwear.
Show them the panties.
OK, strut over, there we go, and then…
Is that Asian enough for you?
As a mixed-race Asian,
I had a lot of internal racism.
I was still raised with an idea
and a mentality that white is right.
And that's really hurtful…
when I think about it now.
But I was very lucky
to meet a group of people
who allowed me to accept me
as I am, as a whole.
I'm OK, I'm like…
I just get super emotional when I talk about it 'cause…
you guys are all fucking awesome.
Thank you. Sorry.
Even like running into people out in the world,
I often feel like, time to turn on,
like, here's a little show.
I'm not gonna tell them that,
actually, I'm really stressed
and, actually, I'm going through this and that.
It's like, la-la-la, looking fun,
feeling fabulous.
And they don't necessarily want to know
the deeper layers.
After my grandpa passed away,
we had to go through all his stuff.
In the garden shed on the back shelf in the corner,
there was a really old suitcase.
And inside were all of these beautiful colourful kimonos,
which were so stunning but so surprising to find,
because, even though my family is Japanese,
we don't wear kimonos, we don't speak Japanese.
We're not really participants in the culture,
so I wondered where these had come from.
It turns out the suitcase they were hidden in
still had my grandma's Japanese name
and her internment camp registration number on it,
because that was the one suitcase
that she was allowed to bring
when her and her family
had to live in the Japanese internment camps
in the middle of the desert for all of World War 2.
To find this piece of her history,
where she literally put her culture away,
really resonated with me as a queer person
thinking about all the pieces of our identity
that we have to package away and put away
in the farthest part of your mind
just to be able to survive.
It inspired me to rebuild a connection
to being queer, being Asian,
and how they kind of overlap.
I know from stories that my grandma felt
there were doors closed to her
purely because she was Japanese.
So, I think seeing me
break through some of those doors,
she'd be so excited.
I think she'd be there
knocking these doors with me.
Through this show,
I want to make sure that we're able to show off
why Asians deserve to be on stages this big.
When you come offstage after that,
you won't be able to go backstage
because that door can't open.
Oh, no.
Yeah, so we'll exit down the stairs.
That's vital information.
-Because that's… -That's just general exit.
That gold dress is actually super difficult to put on.
Behind all the makeup and the hair and the costumes,
it's actually quite a scary place to be in,
to be that vulnerable
and share your story on stage.
I've experienced quite a bit of racism
and transphobia.
And even though those are the things
that make my existence scary,
I think those are the reasons why
it's so important that my story gets told.
Should we bite the peach on three?
OK, we're all gonna bite the peach.
The power of the Bitten Peach.
And we have to make a biting sound,
a chomping sound.
1, 2, 3.
Now, has anyone seen my body crystals?
The Bitten Peach!
When the people that see ShayShay
just coming on stage
unapologetically being their authentic selves,
that's enough for someone to go…
"Maybe I could do that,
I can be me." You know?
Everyone around is loving this, like, this is real.
This is what life should be like everywhere.
ShayShay has actually really taught me
to be vulnerable
and to be genuine to myself.
And they inspire me to
not be afraid to speak out.
Girls who look like me
are supposed to cry over boys who look like him.
I'd seen all the movies and read all the books.
We were just following the plot.
It's so lovely
when people come up to you and tell you
they were just happy to see
someone else of their body type
or their skin tone on stage,
doing something that's not a stereotypical thing.
The chained lady wanted to celebrate
her newly-found freedom.
I discovered how multilayered drag is,
that it can be political,
angry, fierce, protest.
It can be fun, messy, trashy, colourful.
And all those things can happen at once,
which is just like what it's like being a human.
Yes! My Asians, we see you!
We fucking love you!
To see that there's all these queer Asians
in the same room together,
isn't that so rare
to observe this queer Asian joy?
Isn't this what paradise looks like?
-Oh, my God! -That was amazing!
You were awesome.
-Can I get a picture, Shay? -Of course!
Get out of the way.
Hey, Mom. Get the pic, get the pic.
I know that some queer Asians don't get to be
their authentic self outside of these spaces.
So, what an amazing thing
to be able to offer to them
and offer to myself.
My grandma was definitely a fan of glamour,
so I think the fact that a lot of my job
has to do with looking glamorous,
I think she'd be very much into that.
I wonder what she'd think if she knew
that I was wearing some of her items
when I go on stage.
I hope she'd be, like, "Yeah!"
ShayShay, I love you!