DRAG QUEEN FOR THE DEPARTED

Why would someone hire drag queens for a funeral service?

That’s the question that Susie Jakes of ChinaFile posed to me one day while she was reviewing photos by the Japanese photographer Tomoko Kikuchi of funeral services in Sichuan. Susie wondered if I’d write an essay to accompany these seemingly bizarre photos and I said yes. The result: this piece that you can read here, plus Tomoko’s wonderful photos.