this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
3 points (100.0% liked)

China

1984 readers
3 users here now

Discuss anything related to China.

Community Rules:

0: Taiwan, Xizang (Tibet), Xinjiang, and Hong Kong are all part of China.

1: Don't go off topic.

2: Be Comradely.

3: Don't spread misinformation or bigotry.


讨论中国的地方。

社区规则:

零、台湾、西藏、新疆、和香港都是中国的一部分。

一、不要跑题。

二、友善对待同志。

三、不要传播谣言或偏执思想。

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Yesterday I started looking into trans acceptance and understanding in china. I came across articles about Jin Xing, china first trans clinic for minors (opened in 2021), China's laws regarding obtaining HRT or GRS (mostly western sources), searched Bilibili and Baidu (videos) using the terms 同志, 變性 and 跨性别 combing through the comments. Finally looking through the stories of trans people who visited or worked in china.

I was surprised to find lots of roadblocks for trans people attempting to get HRT, GRS, change there paperwork etc. For example if you want to obtain HRT in china as a trans women you must notify your family, get written acceptance, prove you have no criminal record and undergo psychological treatment. This leads to a lot of trans people getting HRT online. However as of 2022 estradiol and cyproterone where added to a list making it illegal to obtain online.

The comment sections of videos on the topic are pretty bad id say similar to transphobic comments left in videos in America. The stories of non passing trans people who traveled to china getting mocked, belittled or in some cases having the police called on them. All of this shocked me and due to the language barrier I attempted to look past some of the comments or dismiss some of the horror stories.

It appears to me that china is severely behind on Trans acceptance and that's why I'd like to open this up as a discussion on the matter as I am only one person who understands little mandarin or other Chinese dialects and would greatly appreciate any information on the matter.

all 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

sadly, that is one of the weakpoints of china, the misogyny and lgbtfobia left by colonization is still very present, personally i don't think there is a excuse to not advanced in that point, so it is fair to criticize heavily, especially when they had a starting point of acceptance, i.e the gay god in taiosm religion.

cuba being in a very tough spot and starting as a deeply misogynist and homophobic country, today have one the most advanced legislation in the world

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hopefully in the future they will take some inspo from cuba regarding LGBTQ rights, thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It will happen only very slowly, because China is huge with a vast rural population and the government will not force faster cultural change in a way that leaves people thinking they're being pushed into accepting ideals they don't want, no matter how wrong those people may be.

It's going to happen generationally, via schools and media teaching each successive generation to be more accepting.

But on the bright side what that means is we won't see massive reactionary surges repealing progressive laws like we're currently seeing recently over trans rights in Florida or Roe v Wade across the U.S.

When China steps forward on progressive issues they might only be small infrequent steps, but it's the whole country stepping forward and there will be no stepping back.

It's frustrating when you compare it to Western standards, but when you consider that most of China are culturally conservative, the progressive movement is doing quite well for itself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is there an urban/rural divide as well as a generational one?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes.

LGBTQ+ people tend to try to start lives in the cities, where prevailing attitudes are more progressive, where there's a LGBTQ community and where there's better surveilance (which means more safety). You also improve your chances of getting signed off on sex reassignment or gender affirming surgeries if you're trans living in the cities, because the mental health impact of the social fallout from how your community will receive your change is a far smaller concern or eliminated entirely, and your family is less worried about getting stigmatized by their community (which is something that will affect them whether they support you or not) if nobody actually knows because you live far away and never visit home.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

you are welcome, comrade. fight for lgbtq rights and not it let get highjacked by liberal ideology should the duty of every communist.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As an ethically chinese person and someone who wholeheartedly supports the CPC,

many Chinese are extremely socially conservative. It's a miracle the CPC has done anything at all with the sheer amount of straight-out conservatism that's prevalent. Just look at all the people who are worried about 'Western Wokeness'.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

ethically Chinese

I know what you meant, I just found this very funny.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah lol, just wanted to clarify I'm living in burgerland. I've been to China once or twice and it's a super nice place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

nah nah like Ethical Chinese, as opposed to the unethically Chinese

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

But mah ughighgyhurs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can't really attribute this to conservatism when traditional Chinese values are generally much more accepting of trans[2] and gay people[1] than their western counterparts. It's similar to the situation in India where westerners spread their homophobic ideals through their colonies and in the modern day through their media power, and we get the blame for it. Bilibili and Baidu comments are generally made up of xenophile liberals (they have polandball videos on bilibili for pete's sake). Although I will admit casual transphobia was pretty common at least circa 2010s.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Ai_of_Han#The_rise_of_Dong_Xian

 MLM relationships generally didn't carry a stigma in ancient times. I can't really cite anything on attitudes towards other LGBTQ+ people 

though.

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jin_Xing

This is more recent but she's a trans celebrity widely loved by boomers.
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If you have not seen it already, you may be interested in this short 2021 documentary, "A Day of Trans 跨越性别的一天", made by a Chinese director who is transgender, which interviews four trans people in China. There is a woman in her 60s who tells some of her life story, a man in his 30s who talks about a gender identity discrimination lawsuit that he won in 2016 and about general issues trans people face in society, and two younger people (one identifies as genderqueer/nonbinary and the other is agender) who talk about their trans rights advocacy work. Each interviewee also talks about the attitudes in society about trans people over time, their own journey, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Ooooh hell yea... China is still very culturally conservative. It reminds me of the youtuber CaptainCool07, even though he lives in San Fransisco. While he makes videos that give pretty decent insight into Chinese politics and history, his other content are however straight up lgbtphobic... talking about "wokism," "family values," etc. Bear in mind, this guy has also stated that he is not a communist/socialist, even though some of his content may appeal to MLs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Diaspora really isn't reflective of the culture in China. In CaptainCool07's case he got drawn into the conservative side of US culture wars simply because many "progressive" polices and politicians (especially in San Francisco) openly discriminate against Asians.

The traditional Chinese position on LGBTQ+ was generally more progressive than the standard liberal position up until the 2000s. For example negativity towards homosexual relations didn't really exist until westernization in the 19th century on[1]. In regards to trans issues it seems that like in many cultures there just wasn't a conception of trans people, but at the minimum crossdressing had no stigma[2]. Personally I don't think hostility towards western values is unfounded when it was western values that introduced homophobia in the first place. As a someone who is Bi I personally think arguments that appeals to traditional values or marxism are going to be much more effective than reusing western liberal idpol rhetoric.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_China

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_people_in_China#Cross_dressing_in_Peking_Opera