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.
First I wanted to thank everyone for contributing to this discussion, rather then reply to several comments individually I figure it might be a better idea to address the most common ones in one post.
1.) Referencing gay or bi people in China as an example when talking about trans acceptance.
Gender identity vs sexual orientation are very different groups with there own needs, using the latter or the former to discuss needs of the former or latter is a grave misunderstanding of those needs and the people involved.
2.) The use of the initialism LGBTQ by Chinese media and in some of the responses to this thread
The initialism is very much historically a western invention, activists started using the initialism "LGBT" in 1988 [1] followed by general acceptance in 1990 [2]. Despite china having vastly different culture as pointed out by some of you in this thread they have also chosen to use western initialism [3].
3.) America and the west is no shining beacon of trans rights or acceptance, in most cases china's transgender population face no legal discrimination in comparison.
With over 80 anti trans bills passed into law and over 500 bills currently in session leading to the criminalizing of trans people in the US [4]. In conjunction with the messaging from the far right reactionary republican party in America calling for the eradication of trans people [5]. In contrast to the west China has very little anti trans laws, however adding common M2F HRT to the restricted drugs list is just another road block for trans people in china.
4.) Trans people in China the cultural differences and the struggle for global trans liberation.
A majority of trans people in China do not have the support of family, friends and society often leading to violence towards them from their own family (even though these attitudes are slowly changing) [3]. As well as alienation from uprooting there entire lives to move to bigger and more accepting cities. I really would like to stress the importance of the acceptance of your friends, family and society when your trans as its been tied to high rates of attempted suicide time and time again [6]. Easy/legal access to HRT in China is extremely difficult and as of 2022 online access to MTF HRT in particular is illegal [3] [7] [8].
I urge everyone of you to thoroughly examine the dangers of ignoring the material conditions that shape trans people’s lives regardless of the customs/cultural differences.