Hurricane Kimchi leads Seoul Drag Parade 2019 in central Seoul's Itaewon area. Courtesy of Argus Parul

Gojoseon was founded over 4,000 years ago, after a bear in a cave ate garlic and mugwort until she transformed into a human. Although this legend gives us a statutory holiday in Korea, there aren't that many street celebrations held for this fabled story. Instead, people around central Seoul's Haebangchon and Itaewon will be treated to a different kind of celebration: the return of Seoul Drag Parade.

"As a drag queen, I gotta say a bear turning into a woman sounds very familiar to what I see in the backstage of drag shows," quipped Heezy Yang, a drag artist who goes by Hurricane Kimchi, who is a co-founder of the drag event.

Yang started Seoul Drag Parade in 2018 with Ali Zahoor, who also goes by Ali Vera. They held the parade annually twice before the pandemic got in their way. Now, they're finally ready to bring the public parade back to Seoul's streets.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to hold the parade like this and had more online events and shows so we're very excited to go back to our roots," Zahoor said. "Our goals for this year's Seoul Drag Parade are somewhat reminiscent of our early days as we're back to doing an outdoor daytime parade, which can be attended by anyone regardless of age, gender, race or sexuality."

Hurricane Kimchi crosses the street in Itaewon during Seoul Drag Parade 2021, which was held online. Courtesy of Seoul Drag Parade

Zahoor explained the need to hold an outdoor event, which enables anyone interested to join.

"Drag in South Korea is often restricted to bar or club venues that cannot allow entry to minors as they serve alcohol," Zahoor said. "Some venues even restrict entry based on sex or sexuality, so we wanted to create a space for anyone to try drag or at least see it. Being out in the open outdoors is also a way to celebrate the art of drag and queer performers, raising awareness for the art form and the presence of queer people."

Zahoor emphasized the importance of drag in the LGBTQ community.

"Drag has always been a way for queer people to express their gender and/or sexuality, dating back centuries," Zahoor said. "As many queer people start to discover or experiment with this from a young age, it's only a positive thing for minors to have a safe and supportive environment to try out drag or at least see it."

"If you think about it, gender roles and gender-appropriate clothing are what are unnatural actually," Yang added. "Some people just decided that men doing these things and women doing those things is what is correct. Same with the gender-appropriate clothing. These things are social constructs and (wrongly) learned ideas and concepts. Drag helps the youths unlearning these things, and it even prevents them from learning such wrong things in the first place."

Drag has become the center of a moral panic in some Western countries, where some conservatives feel threatened by drag, seeing it as a sexual thing, and especially something that minors should be protected from.

But in Korea, drag seems to be off the radar of conservative Christians so far. Unlike the much larger annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) that happens downtown, Seoul Drag Parade does not get attacked by religious people and needs no police protection to operate.

"A lot of people in Korea still don't even know what drag is. Therefore, they don't know about Seoul Drag Parade either," Yang said. "The thing about the attacks and oppressions coming from anti-LGBTQ Christian groups is that they only take place when something gets visible and noticed on their radar."

Yang added, "While the many Pride parades of South Korea are named and presented as Queer Festivals or Queer Parades, our event is officially titled and promoted as Seoul Drag Parade, which does not include the word 'Queer.'"

The location in Seoul's more foreign areas may also help protect them from protests, Zahoor noted.

"Protests have been minimal and mostly online rather than in-person, and I think a lot of this is due to the location being Itaewon," Zahoor said. "Even though drag shows exist in Hongdae, Euljiro and Jongno, to name a few, Itaewon is the heart of drag in Seoul. Itaewon is known to be more liberal and open-minded due to the presence of foreigners and establishments for sexual minorities."

Hurricane Kimchi, center, leads Seoul Drag Parade 2018 through central Seoul's Itaewon. Courtesy of Sangsuk Sylvia Kang

While registering with the police for the parade, Yang reported none of the problems experienced by SQCF organizers, who have to compete with Christian protesters registering their own counter-events. He did admit to keeping the event a secret until after they successfully gained permission.

"So far, with declaring our parade at the police station and working with the police, I have not experienced anything negative," Yang said. "They've always tried to let us do whatever we wanted to do in the way we wanted to do, as much as possible, while they're providing the help we need to keep us safe during the event."

While SQCF attracts hundreds of thousands of participants, the Seoul Drag Parade sees participation in the hundreds.

"If I may, size isn't everything," Yang said. "Seoul Drag Parade is a much smaller parade event than other Pride Parade events in Korea, but it is that much more intimate, community-like and safer from anti-LGBTQ Christian groups' attacks and oppositions. I love what we have created and the way it is now."

Seoul Drag Parade was originally founded to run the annual parade event, but the two co-founders soon started organizing and participating in various other drag-related events throughout the year, not just in Seoul but also in other Korean cities, and even overseas as well. It has also, out of necessity, become a human rights organization.

"We create shows, events, spaces for drag performers, fans of drag, LGBTQ+ people and allies," Yang said. "We create platforms for those people."

Hurricane Kimchi holds a Seoul Drag Parade fan. Courtesy of Chae Eu-geun

They recently raised donations in order to join the Daegu Queer Culture Festival, which is the second-oldest such festival in Korea. Seoul Drag Parade had a float for the festival, which was held Saturday.

"We felt it was important to join in again for their 16th parade, especially since it's one of the most conservative parts of South Korea with potentially the highest ratio of protesters," Zahoor said. "Luckily, we were able to raise enough funds to cover transportation costs of performers due to kind and generous donors."

The hour-long Seoul Drag Parade begins at 4 p.m. in front of Rabbithole Arcade Pub in Haebangchon and marches to Itaewon and back. There is no participation fee.

Before and after, there are a whole day's worth of events, starting from 2 p.m. From 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., there is a queer market and tarot reading at Rabbithole and The Studio HBC next door. Entry is free to everyone of all ages, and the venues will have no alcohol sales during this time.

Rabbithole and KYLDN Social Club will host after parties with drag performances from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. These events are not for minors, and 15,000 won gives guests entry to both events.

As well, supporting businesses Phillies Pub, Living Room and Hair of the Dog will offer a free shot to people wearing the after party bracelet, when they make a purchase.

Visit linktr.ee/seouldragparade for more information.