For Pride, Get Banana Fever with Nymphia Wind

Throughout Season 16 of "RuPaul's Drag Race," Nymphia Wind was viewed as an underdog. Her fun-loving personality and seeming (to some) over-reliance on her banana motif (and use of yellow), struck some as one-note, which usually means an early "sashay away." But once she hit the runway with her drop-dead gorgeous creations, it was obvious she was a contender. Her exacting looks incorporated design elements from Asian culture (such as those derived from the Peking Opera) into a campy, over-the-top fashions that made her a cult favorite. Her place on the runway as the only Asian queen amongst the many contestants played to her advantage, and her win was aZ zeitgeist moment – breaking what many fans felt was the show's "Asian curse." She was the first East Asian performer to win "RuPaul's Drag Race," and the first Asian queen to take home the crown since Raja was crowned on Season 3 - 14 years ago. Accepting her scepter from RuPaul, Nymphia addressed the audience during the finale. "To those who feel like they don't belong, just remember to live fearlessly and have the courage to live your truth," she said, before declaring "Taiwan, this is for you!"

On Thursday, Nymphia Wind comes to New York's iconic Town Hall with "BANANAS," which promises to be an ecstatic celebration of all things yellow. She has even asked her audience to dress in the color to create what she has called a "yellow carpet" that embraces her brand and her subverting of negative cultural associations with the color. Showcasing what she calls "Asian excellence," expect the show to reflect the breadth, style and magic of Asian drag as she will be joined by guest performers from both Taiwan and New York. Nymphia will also tell her journey in her characteristic bratty and sarcastic manner, from her childhood in Hong King and Taiwan, college in the U.K., her successful drag career both at home and in the US, her "Drag Race" win and world domination (or at least an appearance at the Paris Olympics).

"It's just going to be a banana show," she teases. "You'll have to come and find out." The performance takes place on Thursday, June 26, 2025 at Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street (Between 6th Ave and Broadway), New York, NY 10036. For tickets to "BANANAS," click here. For more on Nymphia Wind, visit her website.

EDGE spoke to Nymphia Wind about "BANANAS," the color yellow, and her career.

Interviewed by Nick Dussault

EDGE: Can we start with your name? Where did it come from?

Nymphia Wind: I'm Nymphia Wind, also known as the Banana Queen of Season 16 of "RuPaul's Drag Race." It comes from my being very into fairies and Nymphia is a Fairy-type Pokemon. It's the Japanese of Sylveon. Wind is just an aspiration to be free and invisible, to flow into anywhere.

EDGE: What can we expect with the upcoming show?

Nymphia Wind: A lot of joy, a lot of celebration. In this current climate, it's time to celebrate your community and celebrate joy, and still find a way to be hopeful. I think as queer people it's very important to continue the battle with heads held high. It's a Pride show, so it's going to be very celebratory. It's a full cast of Asian queens and the host is Shaquita. a Black drag Queen and a New York icon. I also have friends from Taiwan who are going to be in New York for Pride, so I also invited them. It's going to be a full cast of Asian excellence, which you don't really get a lot. So, it's important for me to have an all-Asian drag show.

EDGE: Why bananas? And the color yellow?

Nymphia Wind: Why not bananas? The banana thing came about in 2020. I made an outfit that was fully yellow from head to toe and went around calling myself a banana for fun. And when people saw me, they kept calling me a banana because I was in all yellow and it just kind of stuck with me. Here we are five years later, I am still a banana and very committed.

EDGE: Is true that the audience is supposed to wear yellow to the show?

Nymphia Wind: I think so. I think it gives into the cultness of Nymphia Wind. You want to play into that. You want to believe that you have Banana Fever. A lot of people come up to me at my show and say how hard it is to find something yellow. And I say, "well, you did it in the end!" It's kind of a fun little thing for them to participate in. It's really heartwarming to see people put an effort in to dressing in yellow. It's amazing to me on the stage to look into the audience and see a sea of yellow.

EDGE: When you started "Drag Race," did you think you'd win?

Nymphia Wind: I think my moon is Gemini, so my voice in my head is everywhere, but there was just a slither that said to me, "I believe you were cast to win this season." Then another part of me said, "I don't know if I'm going to win, but at least have fun. Winning's not the end goal."

EDGE: You were very different from the other girls. Did you feel like an outsider?

Nymphia Wind: I definitely felt like an outsider. In Season 16 as a whole we all got along. We were all about the same amount of shady, but I think what was on my side is that I grew up in Asia. The culture is different. We're not as outgoing. We're not brought up to be like, "I won 10 gold medals." We're taught to be more passive and more soft-spoken. Don't boast your achievements and always be considerate of others. Americans are brought up to be self-centered, not in a mean way. You know you are important, and you can do what you want to do. In Asia, we aspire to that, but we're brought up to be more soft-spoken. Being in an all American cast was very stressful because everyone was so outspoken and forward, really saying what's on their mind. I'm a bit more shy, so it was really hard to find the balance with the girls. But it was very fun to get to know them as well.

EDGE: Are you still friendly with them?

Nymphia Wind: We're very friendly. They forget sometimes there's a language barrier and I feel that people don't understand me.

EDGE: I think your English quite good.

Nymphia Wind: I feel that I communicate normally; you wouldn't clock that. Maybe I have a language barrier, but it's how the brain functions. It's a different language. Your brain functions differently in different languages.

EDGE: You had a lot of success before "Drag Race."

EDGE:: I think so in Taiwan specifically. But felt I needed to move to America. It was an easy move because, first of all, I had an American passport; and second, I feel like as Taiwan is such a small country, there's only so much you could do there. I was successful there shows there and people know me as the crazy yellow banana queen who makes all her own shit. But I feel that in Taiwan, I plateaued a little bit. I moved to New York because I felt like I needed a challenge to see where drag could bring me, and to challenge my career as a drag queen.

EDGE: You were born in America?

Nymphia Wind: I was born in Los Angeles, but I only lived in America for about a year, so I wouldn't consider myself necessarily an American. I just hold an American passport.

EDGE:: You raised in Asia?

Nymphia Wind: Yeah, raised in Asia. So I'm an anchor baby. You plop it, and you leave. Like you drop the anchor for a few moments, and then you leave.

EDGE:: How did winning change your life?

Nymphia Wind: Oh, girl, every single aspect. Well, first of all, I get to achieve a childhood thought, because back when I was young, when I watched the show, it was only a thought, not a dream. I didn't think it was really achievable to be the first East Asian Drag Queen to win the show. Who knew years later I really got to do that and achieve that thought? It's pretty amazing. And the more time has passed, the more I realize, "Oh, my God! I actually won "RuPaul's Drag Race," Season 16! That is just mind boggling to me right now. It's just like, "Damn I did that! That was crazy!" And it definitely changed every aspect of my life. I'm really grateful to have won. When I went into the show I needed to find a way to be memorable, especially since the franchise does a lot of different seasons and international seasons. I know this sounds cruel, but it is easy to be forgotten given the reality of the current market. I am really grateful to have won, and to be able to share my art. And people still want to book me, so I'm just grateful to have this opportunity.

EDGE:: At what point did you realize you were gay? And when did your interest in drag take off?

Nymphia Wind: I realized I was gay when my girlfriend in high school. Well, female friend, not actual girlfriend, said to me, "Leo, I think you're gay." And I was like, "What? No way." But I mean the signs were all there: I likes to hang out with a group of girlfriends. and we would always look at the soap operas and fawn over the boys. But I never registered that I was gay, I think, because I wasn't really bullied for being gay, so that never really registered as something different. And I never really thought about it. But I came to really think about my gayness more fully in college when people would ask me if I was gay, and I had to give them an answer. I was like still shy about my identity at that point. But during college I grew to be more comfortable with the fact that I'm gay, and really came to terms and realized what that is and what that means for me.

Drag came about around college as well. I was like playing with makeup and experimenting with different makeup faces. And then slowly it developed into the drag that you guys know now. Drag for me after college was a way to combine everything that I loved into one thing – to combine all of my interests and focus. So that's why I continued to do drag.

EDGE:: What was it like the first time you looked at yourself in the mirror in full drag.

Nymphia Wind: Oh, my God, the fantasy! It was just like you transported yourself into another different realm of identity. And it's just a way to escape and just be different -- to feel the freedom of how makeup can really change your face. To feel to be whoever you want to be, because people don't really recognize you. It's really a clean slate for you to explore who you are. That was probably my first reaction of seeing my face in the mirror with dramatic drag makeup. It was just a clean slate of freedom of expression.

EDGE:: Nice. How did your family react to it?

Nymphia Wind: So I was in England when my mom saw me do drag for the first time. I recall her saying she was proud to see me come out of my shell. She saw me in a new light. It was very positive reaction. My mom's been very supportive in my own journey and exploration, because I was a shy and introverted child. My mom saw that as me, breaking out of my shell through drag.

EDGE:: So do you think you've had a positive impact in the Asian Queen community.

Nymphia Wind: I would love to think so. I mean, judging from the reaction I have got when I go out to do these shows and these Asian queens and the Asian people in the community in the audience come up to me, and spill their heart out. And it's just really heartwarming to see that I'm able to represent something that they have been longing for to see for so long. And you know, hopefully, I don't disappoint them and uphold a certain level of Asian excellence for them.

EDGE:: Where in Asia did you grow up?

Nymphia Wind: I grew up in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

EDGE:: What's gay life like there?

Nymphia Wind: It's a blessing to be in Taiwan as a gay person. We are the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage. In Taiwan I feel very safe in drag. I don't feel like I'm going to be attacked any moment. And it's just a great place to do drag. But in our current climate, there's always gonna be people who are what do you call them? Naysayers. There are always gonna be naysayers and they come out of a place of not knowing who we are and what we are. And in Taiwan they assume we're from Thailand because in Asian culture is, that is the place where trans people go to get a sex change. So when they see us drag queens, they assume we're from Thailand. But I think in in Taiwan there's a sense that the whole drag community is striving to educate what drag is and drag is an art form.

EDGE:: Your drag on "RuPaul's Drag Race" were often spectacular works of art. How did you become so adept at making those fantastic costume outfits.

Nymphia Wind:: I don't know. I'm a perfectionist. Fom an early age, my mom would a scream into my ear to pay attention to the details. The details, the details. The devil's in the details. From a young age my mom has inserted this value into me. This idea of paying attention to detail. And growing up, my mom was always very nurturing of my artistic persona. She always encouraged me to pursue art, to pursue design. At one point in middle school or high school. I wanted to start making clothes, because up until that point I was only like drawing fashion illustrations, and I wanted to make it into reality and create them. So I started making clothes and was good at it because I was always very crafty and always very good at sewing.

EDGE:: When you go on "Drag Race," do they tell you what outfits you're gonna need, what kind of competitions you will be involved in?

Nymphia Wind: They give you a list of all the runway themes, and you have to prepare according to the theme.

EDGE::: Is there much quick sewing and design work while in the competition?

Nymphia Wind: There is with all the design challenges. We don't know how much design challenge they're gonna give us, and you have to be ready for that.

EDGE:: One more question, what advice would you give to somebody just starting out?

Nymphia Wind: Quit it right now. Don't pursue it. Really. (Pause). No. I'm joking. I mean definitely be open to adventure and explore yourself and really figure out what you want out of this, whether it be. you know, I think, drag at its essence is all about queer joy. It's all about celebration. It's all about artistic expression. It's all about feeling beautiful and knowing that you can throw behind your reality and create your own reality, and you are your own boss. Just remember that, and be a beautiful drag queen.

For tickets to "BANANAS," click here. For more on Nymphia Wind, visit her website.