Kim Lee in his studio

Kim is the only Vietnamese drag queen in Poland. He is half Korean and half Vietnamese, and his life is Poland.  There are only around thirty drag queens in Poland, and they already have a hard time being demonised by the right-wing government. Kim highlights that there are two main stereotypical representations of a Vietnamese person in Poland: “You are either depicted as the mafia, or a bazaar trader on the old football stadium, which was a big trading hot spot in the 90s. There is no representation of artists or performers.  Polish society doesn’t let us be seen outside stereotypes that it has created, and there is a mutual lack of contact between Vietnamese and Polish communities.” In the background the archival imagery is that of a Polish-Vietnamese statement, signed at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. It was signed by the Central Committee Secretary, Edward Gierek, and the Central Committee Secretary of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Le Duan.