We talk to transgender advocates about the evolution of non-binary pronouns in mainland China and Hong Kong. Over the past few years, an increasing number of people in Hong Kong and mainland China have realized that gender is not a black-and-white matter. While the majority of people still identify as either male or female, not everyone fits into those two categories. Non-binary individuals may have a gender that blends male and female or experience a gender that changes over time; others may not identify with any gender. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong and mainland China, the Chinese-speaking transgender community has been experimenting with the introduction of non-binary pronouns as an alternative to gender-specific pronouns, such as 他 (he) and 她 (she). To learn more about this linguistic evolution, we invite advocates in Hong Kong to walk us through the latest developments.
How have the pronouns: 她 (female) and character 他 (male & pronounced as tā), evolved and challenged/or become inclusive towards the non-binary third-person, gender-neutral pronoun, 佢 (pronounced as qú)?
Well because everybody had a problem with the female pronouns meaning everything and the male pronoun Ta had only referred to meaning human or man plus it served as a gender neutral pronoun covering femal and male masculinity the female pronoun didn’t become prevalent until 1920s but it caused some problem with females because they thought they was equal to animals. In the article arianalife.com it states how ”Using a 人(human) radical [in 他] to represent men, a 女(woman) radical [in 她] to represent women, and a 牛(cow) radical [in 牠] to represent animals is an insult to women because it implies they are not human… we refuse to use the term 她.“ this shows how they were upset that there pronouns where more equal to a cow but over time it gained popularity
the radical 人 (meaning ‘human’ or ‘man’).The male pronouns were wildly expected right away, no one really felt any need to argue it because it meant human (man) so it was accepted but the female pronouns were met with harsh critic because it referred to animals/radical [in 牠] many claim and to cows but eventually gained popularity. So I believe people have to be given time to fully come to terms with the pronouns. Many liked the pronoun X也, because it began with a x saying neither but it ended up as 佢 .I'm glad there voices were heard on how they want to be called.
In contemporary Chinese, the character 他 (pronounced as tā) is specifically associated with men, however, that is a relatively modern construct. For much of Chinese history, the word served as a gender-neutral pronoun, covering feminine, masculine, and neutral pronouns – the equivalent of ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘it’ in English. In many works of Chinese classic literature, such as 18th-century Dream of the Red Chamber, authors used 他 to describe male and female characters.
Due to increasing linguistic and cultural interactions with the West, a shift took place at the turn of the 20th century. Gradually, Chinese speakers started using 他 to refer to only to men, since the character contains the radical 人 (meaning ‘human’ or ‘man’).