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ASIAN HISTORY Mr. Smith goes to China: three Scots in the making of Britain’s global empire

anger and celebration of femininity. As Khubchandani explains, these divas offer a sense of resilience and respite from everyday violence and depression. According to him, the unruliness of their performance in queer spaces is bound to pleasure, shame and sharing enabling “the possibility of a we” (p. 158). Khubchandani’s ethnography is beautiful and complex. He rightly points out that gay nightlife is a curatorial practice – from door policies, choice of music and décor to location, which can welcome some but also act as a barrier for others. It is hard to find fault in this book but I would have welcomed it if the author had engaged slightly more with issues of language, caste and digital exclusion, especially given how they further challenge the liberatory potential of gay nightlife spaces. Overall Ishtyle makes a significant contribution to understanding drag labour, South Asian queer diasporas and popular culture. It is an important book for scholars of queer performance and South Asian studies with wider application for scholarship on labour, creative industries and urban studies.