Obituary | How Hong Kong-based drag queen La Chiquitta was ‘a rainbow over Victoria Harbour’
Rye Bautista mesmerised Hong Kong audiences as the irreverent, irresistible drag queen La Chiquitta. She died aged 43 on August 28
In 2005, Rye Bautista of Ballet Philippines went from the Manila Cultural Centre to the stage at Hong Kong Disneyland, before landing on the counter at Volume, a bar in Sheung Wan.
Dazed and exhilarated, Bautista emerged from this (sadly now closed) cocoon for the gay community as the irreverent, irresistible and impeccably dressed La Chiquitta, self-proclaimed daughter of Hong Kong, the city’s undisputed Queen of Drag.
The journey to becoming La C, she told me, involved mastering the art of creating fabulousness through trial and error, years of cumulative sleepless nights, and copious amounts of chocolate and conviction. And all this without the benefit of a drag mother to show her the way. As Schumann said of Chopin, “Hats off gentlemen, a genius.”
High-speed Hong Kong energised La Chiquitta. Fizzing with creativity, she took off in high heels in all directions.
She acted in a range of theatrical roles, from pantomime and cabaret to a major role in Jean Genet’s The Maids at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2013.
