Phillip Cheung INTERVIEW
Where were you born Phillip?
I was born in Hong Kong, I was actually adopted. Someone abandoned me on the streets and my cousin found me. I only found this out a couple of years ago, I always thought my aunt found me. My adopted parents wanted children.
So my cousin actually found me and ran over to my mom and said “Auntie! Auntie! I found a baby, you want a baby right?”
So my mom took me home and I was really sick. After she got me better, she was gonna adopt me but they couldn’t because I guess the laws in those days said that they had to leave me in an orphanage for about six or eight months. If nobody claimed me, then they could adopt me.
But then one night the nun came and called my mother and said, the child you bought in is not gonna make it through the night, because I had tuberculosis. So they intubated and gave me a tracheotomy and I lived.
How old were you, less than a year old?
I was a month when they found me. it’s so funny because when my mother found me, I was in really bad shape. My eyes were swollen shut, I had an ear infection my head was infected. And my mom said that the only thing she liked about me was my nose. [Laughs] It’s not a Chinese nose.
I said, well you don’t want to know what I’m doing with my nose now…[Laughs} Yeah I grew up in Hong Kong and I came here when I was eight years old, 1970.
Did your whole family come here with you?.
Yeah, my whole family came.
How was it like being an immigrant child in America?
We first landed in Newark, New Jersey, and I got a funny story to tell you, We lived in a very nice neighborhood, predominantly black neighborhood, My next-door neighbors were librarians and they would take the books from the library and teach us English.
It’s funny you ask that question, we never thought of ourselves as immigrants. In those days we didn’t have this sensitivity of thinking like you being black, or you being Asian. We came here because we wanted a better life and we were Americans. Today everybody’s so focused on race and sexual orientation. Not saying that they’re not important,
My mom couldn’t work, she was so sick. So my father said, don’t worry, I’ll take care of the family. So she’s outside planting and the next-door neighbor who happened to be black would always come out and say hi to my mom. Now my mom didn’t know what hi meant at that time.
Hi means “cunt” in Chinese. So she thought every morning the guy was calling her a cunt.
So one day she asked my uncles, Why are the black guys next door so nice to me, but call me a cunt every morning? My uncles said, “Why would they call you a cunt?
“Cause they’re saying hi all the time! “
Was fashion always a passion for you?
Yeah, my first passion was actually movies,
I’ve always been a ham. I made my mother take me to these modeling agencies for jobs that I knew I wasn’t going to get.
I always been a very inquisitive child. So my main focus early on was the history of movies. I know a lot about the older, silent movies from the thirties and forties.
I can’t tell you what and why but my focus shifted into fashion. But I was super into history and that’s the foremost point of interest. Whether I’m dressing a way for work or when I do drag, there’s a certain sense of style that I want to emulate. I think that’s from watching so much of the history from the movies and what people were wearing.
I was in high school, you know, when people ask me to do book reports, I did my book report on the Biography of Clark Gable. Jacqueline Susann – Valley of the Dolls. The Other Side of Midnight.
I would write these reports and the teacher would be surprised like, You know who Clark Gable is? Back then you could still kind of see that undertones of racism.
You know Broadway plays? You know who Busby Berkeley is? I said, of course I know who Busby Berkeley, Charlie Chaplin all of that.
The most common comment is “You’re pretty smart with Chinese person”
But here’s the thing, you take it with a grain of salt and you can’t be so sensitive. I think they meant it as a compliment even though it was kind of backhanded.
What was your first job in fashion?
My first job was actually at a clothing 10 and West, it’s long gone now. Then I work at several jobs, I’ve been changing jobs because I couldn’t get what I wanted. In hindsight, it was not the best thing.
The best and most entertaining job I had was that I was buying for a buying office. A buying office is something that represents stores overseas, stores that want to buy American fashion but don’t have access to it. So I did that for two, three years. I would always travel around the world, go to all the fashion shows. That was my last job in a fashion which was in the early nineties.
So what would you say is the biggest difference between then and now in terms of fashion culture?
I think the biggest difference. How we are now more focused on the quick, here and now. We’re not taking the time to educate and ask why. We live in a world where everything is so fast, we don’t take the time to nurture the younger generation. And maybe the younger generation doesn’t want to be nurtured because some of the kids think they know everything. I think that’s one of the things we’re missing right now is human contact. We don’t know the rich history and the legacy of things.
Who do you look up to?
My parents to be honest because they married late, they adopted me, they came here from China knowing not a word of English. And my mother couldn’t work the first 10 years, she was so sick, yet somehow they raised two kids. They fully paid for both of us to go to college. Everything I have here is because of them. So yeah my parents are my heroes.
When do you feel your best?
I feel my best when I’m doing something that excites me. Also when I’m helping out someone. When I see someone younger and I’m able to give away some of my wisdom, whatever that may be.
Cause I have a lot to share, and it’s not always right. But I think that I have enough to give back because I’ve been blessed. Had I been left out to die on the doorstep, I wouldn’t be here. So I want to give back a little bit
I think maybe that’s what I”ve searching for all my life to find that one person who I can not only give love too, but also to share my experiences and say this is okay.
Yeah have an impact on someone, I’d imagine sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes people think it’s too overwhelming.
Yeah, like why are you being so nice to me? Especially here in New York, it’s like a crime to be nice to people.
Or some people think that you have an ulterior motive and you know what, I’m going to be honest with you. I’m the only one who will give you something and I don’t expect anything back. If you do something for me, that’s the icing on the cake. But I’m not going to say you owe me something. I love helping younger people because it keeps me stay engaged.
That’s the funny thing about helping people is that obviously, you want to just it for the sake of being good, but helping people also kind of selfishly makes you feel good about yourself because you did a good deed.
I don’t have any guilt cause I always treated people the way they deserve to be treated.
Because I can be a rude bitch.
But I’m very rarely disappointed because I’m not expecting anything. I have to give myself a pat on the back too, I’ve been through a lot. A lot of it’s my fault, but you know what? I always bounce back. When I first moved to this place, I got kicked out of my apartment.
I was doing drugs so much I couldn’t pay rent.
So they kicked me out that night and I had to take two big bags, granted, they were LV bags, from 23rd all the way to 102nd st and my friend, let me stay at his place.
One day I was at the bar working and this guy I picked up, he brought me home and after we finished, I told him I needed an apartment and he said, “Oh,let me go downstairs and ask Marie!” And I got an apartment in that building.
When I first moved there, I had nothing. I had one little mattress.
I’m tough, but I’m fair, and I’m very to myself. I don’t go out there and try to make myself better than who I am and try to parade myself around. I like to keep myself in a small group and be private.
And I’ll never be ashamed of who I am being gay and I’ll never use that, I’ll never go, What are you looking at? You think I’m gay?
I don’t use that because one of the biggest things I see in people of this new generation, is that everyone thinks they are the victim. Like oh, it’s so bad, poor poor me.
Because the problem is this, if you keep doing that, when something does actually happen, people are not going to believe you.
When did you get into drag performances?
You know, what’s so funny, by my second year here, I was going to this gay bar and I was dancing and this guy goes, Philip, you dance really well. Why don’t you do a drag show? We’re doing a fundraiser for this AIDS organization.
And I’m looking at him, I said, What the fuck is drag? What the fuck is that?
He said, no it’s where you dress up as a woman. I said “Oh that sounds fun” and it blossomed from there.
I never did drag to prove something. I did it for me. I was at the bar, I did drag, that’s how people would knew me. On a Friday and Saturday, I would go downstairs and change at least 10 times.
I participate in every single gay pride parade for the last 35 years. I haven’t missed one yet. Because I’ll be honest when you’re out there. It’s fun. One day a year, I get to have the time of my life.
But I’m not sure I’m going to go do another gay pride parade. You know why? With the way everything is so divided right now. the last time I went, they go, “This is not a celebration, it’s a protest!” I go what the fuck are you protesting about? You got fucking gay marriage right?
I think the community is perpetually angry and that’s a bad thing. You know, don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of injustice out there. I can tell you. But dammit make yourself happy.
People rarely bother me. I think because I am very well-read so I can come back to you with a debate. Really few people want to debate me on a lot of issues, so they leave me alone.
People who don’t know me are in for a big surprise because I can fight with the best of them, physically and verbally.
Where are you always a big reader since you’re a child?
Oh yeah. Oh my God. II was in the sixth grade, seventh grade.
I would lie to my mother just to get money to buy books.
I would buy all these books, I would buy all these Hollywood books. I have so many, and they’re worth tons of money now. Then I started getting into these dirty books I would buy them. I would tell my mom like, I need that for school! I would lie for her to give me the 50 cents to buy that book.
To this day I am. I don’t read anymore because I have audiobooks, but I listen to the books before I go to sleep.
If you look at my collection of books, that will give you a synopsis of who I am and where my interests lie. A big portion of it is fashion books. Another real big portion of it is the history of New York. I’m just beginning to start collecting a lot of Chinese history.
Whats your the most prized book that you own?
Oh this book, the fucking cat ate it up, but I kept it. This book was written by the tutor of the last emperor of China. Twilight in the Forbidden City. And I paid a lot of money for this book and yeah I’m gonna try to see if someone can conserve it.
That’s what you get for dating the wrong person, old sins cast long shadows.
I’m pretty multifaceted because the thing is that I don’t limit myself. I never thought of myself as being close to 60. I just do what I do. I think I have more energy. I don’t lie. I don’t try to tell you who I am not.
So tell me about this massive collection of designer clothes you have, what are you looking for when you buy something?
I always, for some reason had an eye for pieces, even my drag pieces. Early on I developed a style that I rarely strayed from. I like something that’s a little bit more out-there. I don’t do well in suits. I am very, very good at finding bargains, good pieces at Goodwill or whatever. The thrill is getting something for the least, the hunt is the thrill.
And to this day I got to tell you, you don’t see a lot of 60-year-olds wearing what I’m wearing.
I mean, I’m comfortable. I think it took me a long time to be comfortable in my skin. Because when you’re in the gay community, you have to be puffy and tall and I’m neither one of those. I make what I have work for me, I don’t have to prove anything to anybody.
What’s the best lesson you’ve learned in life?
My mom taught me, that…
If you’re careful. your ship can sail a thousand years.
So in my life, I have never been one to be very careful, but I always am careful because of some of the things that she taught me.
There were days when we would go out and get fucked up out of our brains, but my friends would always say, “You know, I don’t care how fucked up you are. You’re the only one who managed to get us home.”
There’s this old saying, If you let a bird out and he comes back, they were meant to be yours,
Be very open. I’m not talking about sexual orientation or whatever. I’m talking about anything, if someone’s like, Hey, you know what, try this, then think about it. You may not like it or it may not work but its always best to try.
It’s not that difficult. Let me tell you if someone who’s been through what I’ve been through can get through life, you guys can too.
Phillip Cheung INTERVIEW
