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Transgender is an overarching term to describe persons whose gender identity/expression differs from what is typically associated with the gender they were born as. "Transgender Studies" was institutionalized as an academic discipline in the 1990s so it is difficult to apply transgender to Chinese culture in a historical context. There were no transgender groups or communities in Hong Kong until after the turn of the century. Today they are still known as a "sexual minority" in China. China and greater China (the Chinese region, including People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (Republic of China)) have transphobia..
Contents
Terminology
Because Chinese transgender studies is so unfocused, a wide variety of terms are used in relation to transgender in the varieties of Chinese.
·In Hong Kong, there are specific derogatory terms used towards transgender peoples. The most common is jan-jiu which translates to "human monster".
Terms for crossdressing are many and varied. 異裝癖 (py yìzhūangpǐ), literally "obsession with the opposite [sex's] attire", is commonly used. 扮裝 (py bànzhūang), literally "to put on attire", is commonly used to mean crossdressing. Related to this is an auxiliary term for drag queens: 扮裝皇后 (py bànzhūang húanghòu), or "crossdressing queen". There are several terms competing as translations of the English drag king, but none has reached currency yet. While research shows that China's younger population is much more accepting of transgender people, offensive terminology like "jan-jim" or "bin-sing-Jan" is very common.
Cross Dressing in Peking Opera
Sinologists often look to theatrical arts when imaging China in a transgender frame because of the prominent presence of cross-gender behavior.
Peking Opera, also known as Beijing Opera, had male actors playing female dan characters. Men traditionally played women’s roles due to women being excluded from performing in front of the public. Although, before 1978, male to female cross dressing was mostly for theatrical performances, used for comedic effect or to disguise a character in order to commit a crime or defeat enemies. Female to male characters were considered heroic in theatrical performances.
Within the Ming and Qing Dynasties of China, there was a lot of cross dressing and transgender practices occurring both onstage and in everyday life. Within the theatre, elite men were intrigued by it. They would role-play, organize their own troupes, write and perform theatrical pieces.
Many of early modern China’s stories reflected cross-dressing and living the life of a different gender for a short period of time, mainly featuring the cross-dressers as virtuous, like Mulan.
Li Yu, a writer and entrepreneur, featured the gendering of bodies to be dependent upon men’s desires and operated by a system of gender dimorphism, assumed by social boundaries of the time. When Li Yu created an acting troupe, as many elite males did, he had a concubine that played a male role as he believed she was “suited to male” or considered her more of the masculine gender.
In modern-day Peking Opera and film, there are male to female cross dressers and vice versa for characters, especially with certain time periods.
Early Sexual Reassignment Surgery
Sex and gender were arguably fluid within the late Ming and early Qing dynasties as many female infants were forced into sex changes to be males. This, in turn, affected those children into living transgender lives, whether through physical transformation or—if there were not a sex change—continuous cross-dressing.
Laws Regarding Gender Reassignment
In 2009 the Chinese government made it illegal for minors to change their officially-listed gender, stating that sexual reassignment surgery, available to only those over the age of twenty, was required in order to apply for a revision of their identification card and residence registration.
In early 2014 the Shanxi province started allowing minors to apply for the change with the additional information of their guardian’s identification card. This shift in policy allows post-surgery marriages to be recognized as heterosexual and therefore legal.
History of the LGBT Community in China
The first recorded gay and lesbian community began to develop in the early 1990 in Beijing, however homosexuality was a relatively sensitive topic until the early 2000s. The introduction of the internet in 1998 allowed for a convenient medium for LGBT activist to connect and communicate. Online chatrooms were a great resource for grassroots LGBT organizations. In addition to the internet, the presence of LGBT communities in China developed very quickly due to outbreak, spread, and subsequent international and government funding for HIV/AIDS prevention. In 1996, AIDS-related funds from the government were just over $500,000 but by 2001 this figured reached nearly $10 million annually. The AIDS public health crisis remains one of the most influential variables for the rise of LGBT groups worldwide. However this funding was mostly focused on gay groups so other sexual minorities groups have developed slower in comparison.
The Beijing LGBT Center (Beijing Tongzhi Zhongxin) is primarily composed of four organizations: Aizhixing AIDS Organization, Tongyu Lala Organization, Aibai Cultural and Education Center, and Les+. Tongyu Lala is an organization based in Beijing that combats discrimination against and is an advocate for social inclusion of lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender people. The group also helps organize LGBT groups in China.
There are a number of important events that focus on promoting LGBT rights and equally in China including the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, the Beijing Queer Film Festival, and gay pride parades held in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou (see Hong Kong Pride Parade and Shanghai Pride).
Pretty Fighter
Inside the LGBT movement in China the gay moment is dominant while other sexual minorities have historically been relegated. On 11 December 2011, a group calling themselves "Pretty Fighers" issued a manifesto proclaiming, "We are lalas. We are queer. We want to speak out." This controversy started when the Aibai organization (a major LGBT group in China) made claims that homosexuality is inborn that that queer theory, which upholds the possibility of plurality in sexual desire, was harmful to the LGBT movement. This debate eventually led to the lesbian moment declaring independence from the gay movement. “The Pretty Fighter Debate” was a major event for the LGBT movement within China because it hailed the lack of gender awareness in China, marked the independence of the lesbian movement, and defined "queer lala" as inclusive of other sexual mores including transgender individuals.
Religion
Confucianism, one of the dominant religions in China, enforces and promotes traditional gender roles. Confucianism has a strong belief in maintaining men’s dominance over women and trans women are therefore viewed as shameful for expressing a lower status.
Buddhism views all bodily concerns as entrapment in the Samsara, equally including those concerns regarding LGBT+ identities and issues.
Maoism
The attitudes of younger generations that have been less exposed to Maoist ideologies are beginning to reflect more accepting attitudes towards members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Youth
Transgender youth in China face many challenges. One study found that Chinese parents report 0.5% (1:200) of their 6 to 12-year boys and 0.6% (1:167) of girls often or always ‘state the wish to be the other gender’. 0.8% (1.125) of 18- to 24-year-old university students who are birth-assigned males (whose sex/gender as indicated on their ID card is male) report that the ‘sex/gender I feel in my heart’ is female, while another 0.4% indicating that their perceived gender was ‘other’. Among birth-assigned females, 2.9% (1:34) indicated they perceived their gender as male, while another 1.3% indicating ‘other’.
One transgender man recounts his childhood as one filled with confusion and peer bullying. In school he was mocked for being a tomboy and was regularly disciplined by teachers for displaying rowdy boy-like behavior. Some recommended to his parents that he be institutionalized.
These attitudes may be slowly changing and many Chinese youth are able to live happy and well-adjusted lives as members of the LGBT+ community in modern China. In July 2012 the BBC reported that the new open economy has led to more freedom of sexual expression in China.
Literature
Literature and plays in the 17th century featured cross-dressing, like Ming dramatist Xu Wei who wrote Female Mulan Takes Her Father’s Place in the Army and The Female Top Candidate Rejects a Wife and Receives a Husband. Despite the female to male cross dressing, the woman would eventually return to her socially gendered roles of wearing women’s clothes and would marry a man.
Social media and technology
Technological advancements help to promote greater awareness among youth of LGBT+ issues. Access to Western media, such as movies, trans-identifying characters, as well as trans-themed web sites are broadening the knowledge and sense of community many trans youth seek.
Transgender people in Media
Entertainers:
Models:
Citizens:
The flowing Chinese films portray transgender characters: