Minhi Wang Is Essentially a Very Beautiful Clown
- INTERVIEW
- Mar 21
- 11 min read
Updated: Mar 23
As a die-hard fan of Canada’s Drag Race, I was thrilled to see Minhi Wang – a self-described ABC (Australian-born Chinese) from Perth, Western Australia – on the cast of Season 5. Given her stint with the Pit Crew on Season 1, it was easy to view Minhi more as a piece of stunt-casting than a serious contender – a mistake many viewers, and some of her fellow queens, seemed to make. But as the competition heated up, Minhi went from strength to strength, becoming a finalist without landing in the bottom for a maxi challenge and snatching two design challenge wins along the way, cementing her reputation as a talented queen and fierce competitor.
Minhi brought a unique cultural perspective and healthy dose of Aussie humour to the Canada’s Drag Race stage. And with her much-commented-upon broad shoulders and athletic body – a striking departure from conventional drag silhouettes – she invited important conversations about Asian stereotypes and traditional drag beauty standards, challenging perceptions of what a drag queen ‘should’ look like while celebrating the diversity of drag expression. But Minhi’s Drag Race journey wasn’t all about impressive looks – she also proved herself a queen with emotional intelligence, kindness, humour (‘defence against the dark arts of gay drag wizardry!’) and big-hearted support of her castmates.
I was so pleased to meet with this Australian drag powerhouse and talk about her journey to Canada, body image, and how to survive the pressure cooker of a reality TV show. If you underestimated Minhi Wang before, don’t make that mistake again...
On the Journey from Australia to Canada
I was born and bred in Perth – Mum and Dad went over as students from Malaysia and Singapore and they just stayed. So, I lived in Perth until I was 26, then moved to London for two years on a working holiday as a physiotherapist and ended up coming to Canada through water polo. I play in a gay water polo league and there's enough LGBTQIA+ water polo teams around the world that every year we hold a tournament. So, people come and meet together, you get to make a lot of friends. You also tend to fall in love. I fell for somebody on the Toronto team. I was 28 at that time and my visa had run out and I didn't want to go home yet, so I basically said to him, ‘Hey, why don't we see what this is?’ Sure enough, it did not work out, but I ended up staying in Toronto anyway. Things fell into place, I made more friends, I started dating somebody, and as time went on, I realised there were a lot of positive things about Canada and Toronto that I liked. One of them being, Canadians are friendly, but they also seem a little bit more open-minded – I felt I could be who I wanted, I could do what I wanted and not really feel any fear around that. I've stayed here because opportunities continued to present themselves – what was initially a two-year working holiday has now turned into 13 years away.
On Starting Drag
The first time I was ever in drag was 13 years ago, for a talent show at the swimming club. The guys at the club, they'd done it a few times, so they're like, ‘Go here, buy a wig here, wear some lipstick, put some eyeshadow on’, that kind of thing.
Then, when I moved to Canada, the group of friends I made came up with this annual drag party. 13 years ago, drag wasn't as popular, it definitely wasn't as mainstream and there were still a lot of misconceptions around people that wanted to do drag – it probably was not great career-wise if people found photos of you dressed up as a woman, that kind of thing.
So, this group of friends, they held a party every year and it was a very amateur drag contest called Miss Verve, but the rules were very strict. The rules were, if you came to the party, you must be in full drag. It wasn't just, ‘Wear a dress and wear a wig,’ it was the opportunity for people to go 100% balls to the wall. Watch YouTube. Learn how to do your makeup. Buy all the makeup. Buy a nice wig. And in the beginning, no phones. You weren't allowed to take photos on your phone because they were worried it would get shared online, and people didn't want that. So, they had SLR cameras set up in a corner with a backdrop, step and repeat, and would share the photos on a secure Google Drive, only with the people that attended.
As the years went on, it became more mainstream, people got more excited about it. The rules about the photos definitely ended, but the rule ‘you must come in drag’ – even if you’re a cis woman, even if you're straight – that still remains.
My housemates and I decided to enter as a trio, so for three years we entered, and we did a group number and eventually won the illustrious title of ‘Miss Verve’, which just meant that next year you had to organise it – a horrible prize! But I was like, oh, this is really fun. Then I would just practice makeup. Winter in Canada is so bleak, there's no point in going out. When there were snowstorms, I would literally just practice makeup. Try new things. Watch YouTube. See somebody do something different with their eyes, how they apply foundation or whatever, and just kept doing that. I would do that for years. Then when the pandemic hit, there was a lot of time to upskill – I learnt how to style hair, how to sew...
My partner says to me, ‘When you don't have an interest in something, you really don't give a shit. But if you do ever take an interest in something, you will master it and don't mind going through the rounds of failure, you eventually figure it out and get better at it. It happened with the makeup, it happened with the sewing, with drag in general. You're kind of fearless in that way, when you get an idea stuck in your head.’
On Building This Body and Asian Stereotypes
Australia is very white dominated and growing up in the 90s and 2000s – it kind of ties in with the whole ‘Abercrombie and Fitch’ thing – I was of the world where what was seen as beautiful, hot, desirable was white, muscled, blonde, that kind of male stereotype. I've spoken to other Asian people about this, and they felt exactly the same. It’s really sad, we wanted to be white rather than just being Asian. And along with that goes any Asian male stereotype or trope about being feminine, undesirable, not masculine.
Then, in the gay community, it's amplified even more. So, it sounds really bad and probably for all the wrong reasons in the beginning, but I was like, ‘Well, if people are going to think I’m undesirable, I will try and make myself as desirable as I can. If that means having to go and work out, if that means building the body that I have now, so be it.’ That's kind of why it started, but then as time has gone on, I just actually legitimately enjoy exercising and working out.
On the show they made it sound like, ‘Oh, she's just doing it for other people, she's doing it for the attention of others.’ I can recognise, at the beginning, that was maybe part of the reason but at this point, it is what it is. And honestly, the world is changing. I think people are seeing a lot of beauty in diversity and that’s really lovely to see. But I would say, the Asian experience, if you talk to a lot of gay Asian males, we do feel we're not as desirable as Caucasian or European men. That’s the crux of it.
On Not Padding for the ‘Slow Motion Couture’ Runway
There's other episodes of Drag Race [US], where they talk about padding, or they talk about proportionising, so that was always in the back of my mind – that if they were ever going to give a negative critique, this is where it could happen. When you're in the show, the inner saboteur, that voice in your head, is just constantly nagging at you that anything you do is going to potentially be critiqued and you could go home.
So, leading up to the runway, I was like, ‘Ooh, I don't know about this’. It was interesting that the guest judge that day was Lauren, who is considered a plus-size model for Sports Illustrated. So, is it fortuitous? Is it luck? Is it manifestation? I don't know, but she was very complimentary. There were comments from larger-build women saying, ‘Oh, it was great to see something like that and that you can still look very feminine with that kind of physique’.
I must admit, the person who made my look, Chris Habana, did a very good job to still provide that look of proportion, because there's these wiry details that gave the illusion that things were wider than they were. For me, I love that look so much, it is a fan-favourite look.
It's really funny because even other queens have said, ‘If I was you, I would just wear looks unpadded’. Juice Boxx was like, ‘If you have that body, why wouldn't you?’ But I love being padded, to be honest. I know that it's so much more work. But I personally love my padded body in drag – when I'm fully covered I think the illusion is beautiful and the proportions are very feminine. But again, people are like, ‘Why are you hiding it?’ It’s not that I'm hiding it, I very much enjoy existing as I do out of drag, in my own body, in my own skin. That's the exciting part about drag, the ability to be able to change and look so different from how you regularly exist.
I must admit I do feel as though, out of all the storylines, when you think about people in their trauma, some of the other stuff [on the show] was very, very heavy. And then here I was, being, ‘I have broad shoulders which I gave myself’. I do see the irony. I do feel on the scale of seriousness, I'm definitely not at the top but again, that's the beauty of these kinds of TV shows. It's about representation. It's about being seen. It’s about finding somebody that has gone through a similar experience to you and being able to connect.
On The Canada’s Drag Race Experience
I don't think anybody can ever prepare you for just how mentally taxing it is. When it came out, I would tell anybody that wanted to go on the show... don't do it. Or not ‘don't do it’, but just, is this the right thing for you? If you're just going on because you want to be famous, then a) that probably isn't going to happen because there's so many franchises out there – if you’re just chasing it for fame you're probably not going to get it to the extent that you think you want and b) it's just not for everyone. I think the mental and emotional toll it puts on you is one of the hardest things I've ever done. So, you need to just ask yourself, are you ready for that? And know that it will break you at some point...
It's very taxing. [Outside of filming] you don't get to hang out with the other girls. You’re literally in your hotel room. You have to ask to do everything. You're isolated. You get in your head. I didn't sleep properly for six weeks. I remember waking up every morning at 3:00am, my brain already going through it, literally having to soothe myself and calm myself down to get at least two hours' worth of sleep.
I think I got halfway through – it would've been just before Snatch Game – and felt, ‘I think I’m done. I've shown a few looks. I haven't done badly. If I went home, I'd be okay because I didn't go first’, which is the main goal. It really was a moment when I was like, ‘Ooh, if I did get eliminated, I think I'd be okay with that.’
On Mental Health Strategies While Filming
I actually journaled the whole time I was there. Every day I would journal. Even on the days when we got back at 11:00pm, I would still make a point to write something down.
Then I was doing a lot of mindfulness – breathing technique and exercises, especially at night. It was very much, ‘Let's just remind ourselves we can only control what is in the now. We don't know what's coming in the future. Pay no mind to the unknown, you cannot control that. Let's just focus on breathing to try and calm the system down’.
Then – I don't know if this is a mental health strategy – but my best friend got me this in Mexico... It's a little devil [a small jointed red devil figurine] and he would hang by my door at the hotel. Every morning before I left, I would literally grab the hands and put them on my head and talk out all of my worries or maybe a little bit of manifesting as well... ‘Today in girl groups, I really want to work with so-and-so’, or, ‘Don't make me think about these kinds of negative things’. And it was kind of funny that it was a little devil. I’d just push all my worries onto him to deal with. Just vocalising it also helped, you know, just passing it on.
If you want to go on the show, no one can really prepare you for it. Just know it's very tough and you won't really know how you're going to react until you're in that situation. To go in without having any strategies on how you're going to deal with stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, all of the insecurities, you're setting yourself up for a bit of a shock or even a bit of a failure.
On Family Reaction to Being on Canada’s Drag Race
My brother is a huge fan, it goes without saying, being gay himself. Mum and Dad... Mum and Dad are just... very Asian. So, I told them about the show – they didn't quite understand what the show is about. They know who Ru Paul is but I don't think they thoroughly understand what drag is. I tried to explain to them that I'm essentially a very beautiful clown – but I don't think that clowning hit the mark with them either – they were like, ‘So, you’re a fool?’
Before I left to go film, they did send me a very touching email, but basically it was, ‘Great that you got on the show, know this is important to you, but just remember that once the show is done, the show is done, and your real life is your job. And just remember, when you go back, you have to do a good job at your job because that's what your purpose is. So go do this, that's fine, but that will come and go. Real life is work. Do a good job with that.’
Mom definitely didn't watch the show. Dad apparently watched the slow-motion episode – my brother said he literally fast-forwarded all the bits until it was me on screen and that was it. I get it. I've lived away long enough that I don't feel I need their approval for things. I’ve passed that, I will do what I want, I think I'm a mature enough adult that I can make good decisions. But for me, the thing that I wanted from them really, was... I felt I did something I was very proud of and I just wanted to share that with them. It wasn't really looking for them to say ‘You did a good job’, I already know that I did a good job. It was just, ‘Hey, I ran in a race, and I came third out of so many people, look what I did’. I try to explain like, look, you go play mahjong, you play ping pong. Mum, you go line dancing. Every time you have a recital, I will ask you to send me videos of you doing it. I will ask you, how did your ping pong thing go? How was mahjong? Do I generally have a very deep interest in this? Probably not, but I know it's important to you so I want to show that I have interest in it too, you know? And that's where I think we're missing each other...
Mum made this comment one time of, ‘I'm just not ready yet for it’. And in my mind, I'm like, ‘Whatever the narrative is that you're creating in your head, I can guarantee you it's 100 times worse than what it is in real life... She's just so beautiful. How can you not like her?’
Interview by JJ Loveday
* This interview has been edited for length and clarity