IDKE.8 - Charleston Chu & Me

(photo of Charleston Chu taken without permission from his blog, "Charleston Chu woo woo woo!")

No less than four times during my recent trip to Austin, TX and IDKE.8 I was congratulated for my performance in the Saturday night Showcase. Folks were genuinely complimentary and very generous with their praise. The thing is, though, that *I* didn't perform in the showcase...it was a case of mistaken identity where I was being confused for Charleston Chu.

On one hand, I was reminded of the racist adage that "all Asians look alike." In U.S. History we've seen this tragically at play countless times...just think about Time magazine's "How to Tell Japs from the Chinese" 1941 article, or Vincent Chin more than forty years after.

Such cases of mistaken identity are not always malicious, nor manifested through physical violence, but that does not make them (in my eyes) necessarily harmless. Of course, I do try and keep a sense of humor about these things...just like the creator of the website All Look Same.

In these IDKE instances, I knew that there were no ill intentions meant, but rather the exact opposite. And, in all honesty, folks were really darn flattering--who would mind that?

Then again, not only did several different folks mistake me for Charleston Chu at this IDKE, but I was also mistaken for another king (Eddie de Los Angeles) at IDKE.5 in Minneapolis. Maybe I just have one of those faces that seem like so many others???

Or, maybe there's something about the way in which non-black kings of color get lumped together?

Don't get me wrong, it was a total compliment (to me) to be mistaken for Charleston Chu--over the weekend we talked ever so briefly about consciously choosing racialized/ethnic drag names, about contemplating the significance of the meanings of depicting particular racialized sexualized masculinities of color, about struggling with the lack of representations (as role models) overall, and about the desire to do politically explicit performance. I wish I could have spoken with him more, but even in our brief exchange, he showed me a lot to admire and respect. That others also loved his performance--his execution of his politics--speaks volumes of how well he melds art and activism (imho).

(More on Charleston Chu, his showcase performance, and the workshop "Get Your Politics Off Your T-Shirt" later...right now I've got to get to the polls and vote NO on Virginia's proposed amendment of the state Constitution to limit marriage to "one man and one woman")