From a young age, Juanita Navas-Nguyen had always felt isolated through her ethnicity and struggled being the only kid that “looked different.”
What is a Boba Liberalist? Juanita Navas-Nguyen shares the meaning of this term described as “an Asian person living in a western world who uses their Asian attributes to gain more social status,” she says. “I’m not a Boba Liberalist but being mixed race, I’ve always questioned myself, am I performing my culture? Or is it inherently a part of who I am?”
Further making sense about the Boba Liberalism aspect of the show, “it correlates with questioning about our cultural identity as strong motifs such as handing out snacks and interacting with the audience,” she explains.
Navas-Nguyen has always wanted to be on stage and always wanted to tell her stories through a creative niche. “I have always written random quotes and messages in my journal as a teenager and I was just inspired to hopefully one day share random stories that don’t even make sense but hoping it can relate to someone,” she says. “Graduating in 2020, I was grateful to work on a few shows such as Eureka Day and Single Asian Female for State Theatre Company SA.”
A core memory from her childhood was a conversation with an older kid when she was only five years old. “My school taught Japanese as a second language so one day an older kid came up to me and asked if I was Japanese and I replied, ‘I am Australian’,” she says. “She constantly kept asking me because she knew I was different and wanted to know why to prove a point.”
Looking back on her childhood, she hopes to “acknowledge being different,” and embrace who she is by connecting to her cultural identities and heritage. “I was ashamed of having a unique ethnicity when I was little and it always triggered my thoughts and intentions of always wanting to change.
“Now being older I wish I was more connected to my culture as a Vietnamese and Columbian woman,” Navas-Nguyen explains.
Debuting in 2024 at the Adelaide Fringe, Confessions of a Boba Liberalist discusses Navas-Nguyen’s journey as a mixed-race kid living in a “predominately white society.” From sharing childhood stories about pivotal moments that questioned her identity, to a side of laughter, snacks and audience interaction. “The show is made up of those core memories that I want to highlight and I have other actors pre-record these conversations with me to give a better detailed glimpse of these interactions than just telling the story,” she explains.
Confessions of a Boba Liberalist is the first independent work based around Navas-Nguyen’s personal experiences growing up as a multicultural kid in Australia and is “very personal,” as it is based off her own experiences where she can essentially “word vomit for one hour,” about her entire life.
“Growing up in a western society, being mixed-race can be a juggle of having different identities when we surround ourselves with different people in our daily lives,” she says. “The concept of the show is kind of an exploration of identity and reflecting who we are from our life experiences.”
Navas-Nguyen hopes Confessions of a Boba Liberalist will continue to thrive into more engaging moments within the audience and reflect upon learning to love our identity as an individual through our culture.
“I believe we are in a time of shifting in today’s society, as more conversations about diverse backgrounds are being shared to create a community within these walls that were hidden in our childhood.”
Confessions of a Boba Liberalist, The Courtyard of Curiosities, until 2 March