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In April 2024, Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind became the first winner of RuPaul's Drag Race from East Asia. Her videos in a stunning golden galactic outfit went viral, bringing Taiwan into the international media spotlight and positioning her as a queer ambassador representing Taiwanese authenticity to the world, or as she described it, like a wai jiao guan 外焦官 – a clever wordplay on 'ambassador' 外交官. Upon returning home, Nymphia was invited to perform for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, donning a banana blossom costume that symbolizes her Asian roots, while dancing in front of the statue of Sun Yat-sen, accompanied by a medley of songs, including classics from Taiwanese divas and her favorite Lady Gaga track, ‘Marry the Night.’
During her performance, Nymphia exhibited the same exuberance seen in Taiwan's sci-fi writers since the 1990s. This time, however, the global recognition of Taiwan’s queer imagination extended beyond literature and showcased itself on television, with both Nymphia and earlier Taiwanese queer science fiction authors sharing a unified aspiration: envisioning an alternate future.
Dreaming of an alternate future
In 1995, Taiwanese gothic sci-fi author Hong Ling 洪凌 reflected on the meaning of existence in cyberspace in the technical journal Wanglu Tongxun 網路通訊, articulating a core concept in contemporary literary sci-fi:
"I just returned from a place where comprehension isn’t constrained by three-dimensional physics. The term ‘returned’ contradicts current physics since I haven’t moved. In truth, I’ve remained still in my little attic, typing on my keyboard perched on my knees, glued to an 87 cm monitor... Somehow, the me from moments ago is not the same as the me who is now furiously striking the keys; they occupy two distinct places."
Amid growing concerns regarding the internet's pervasive spread in the 1990s and its implications for freedom and civilization, Hong Ling's contribution titled ‘A Fatal and Magnificent Surreal Realm’ 致命華美的超現實境域 offered a hopeful vision for the future. This outlook has deeply influenced queer sci-fi in Taiwan: one that prioritizes different modes of existence.
Sci-fi remains an underappreciated genre in Taiwan. A visit to a bookstore on the island, whether in the 1990s during the genre's emergence or today, reveals a lack of dedicated shelves for such texts. Taiwanese sci-fi writers of the 1990s employed diverse elements, complicating the task of strictly categorizing Taiwanese sci-fi without encroaching upon fantasy or general literature genres.
Scholars argue that a defining aspect of sci-fi is the notion of cyberspace, which presents an avenue to fulfill the fantasy of transcending the "prison of the body" in the future. However, Taiwanese queer sci-fi authors like Hong Ling approached future uncertainties comprehensively. They perceived technology not merely as an escape route from present-day issues but as a central component of their ambitions for survival outside normative constructs. Their narratives depicted cyberspace and technology not as detachment from corporeal concerns but as a means to navigate between our vulnerable realities and existential threats, creating avenues for queer futures.
The body occupies a central role in Taiwanese sci-fi of the 1990s, infused with desire and longing, reflected in Hong Ling’s collection of lesbian vampire stories, Heretic Vampire Biographies 異端吸血鬼列傳, or in her narrative ‘Fever’ 發燒, featuring lesbian vampires and werewolves in post-apocalyptic environments shaped by nuclear and environmental disasters.
Through technology, Taiwanese queer sci-fi writers conceptualized self-expression unbound by sexual biases while embracing uncertainties of the future. As Hong Ling penned, "Let’s meet each other online! Even if that means encountering deeply alienated identities and becoming entangled in relationships unlike any we currently know." Though this call for an anarchic future may seem radical, it positions technology as the avenue to realize the unknown, highlighting a necessity to transform the corrupted present. Technology served not only as an abstract muse for queer storytelling but also as a concrete means to forge an unpredictable yet yearned-for future, with queer sci-fi authors fueled by it.
In 1995, when Microsoft Word and the internet were still novelties, Chi Ta-wei 紀大偉 introduced The Membranes 膜, often recognized as the first modern Sinophone queer sci-fi novel and seemingly the first to feature a trans protagonist. This narrative unfolds in a world where humanity has escaped the Earth's surface to take refuge on the ocean floor. Written in merely one month, two years after Chi learned to use Microsoft Word, the novel has been translated into multiple European languages and adapted for the stage—clearly illustrating that technology was not just a fictional backdrop but an essential tool for crafting the future.
In a 2021
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In April 2024, Nymphia Wind, a drag queen from Taiwan, made history as the first East Asian winner of RuPaul's Drag Race. Clips of her in a shimmering golden outfit gained widespread attention online, bringing Taiwan into the global media spotlight and establishing her as a kind of queer representative for Taiwanese authenticity to the world. As she humorously noted, this role can be compared to a wai jiao guan 外焦官 – ‘external banana official’, a play on words with the term for 'ambassador' 外交官.