Home> Archive> 2022> Volume 12 Number 2 ( May. 2022)
IJSSH 2022 Vol.12(2): 79-84 ISSN: 2010-3646
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2022.V12.1070

An Exploration of Transgender Individuals' Identity Experiences in the Chinese Context

Ziqi Shi

Abstract—With the diversified development of Chinese society, transgender groups have come into people's awareness, but their living conditions are not optimistic. Therefore, the purpose of this preliminary study was 1) to explore the experiences, including main difficulties faced by Chinese transgender people in their daily life, 2) to raise awareness of respect for transgender people, and finally 3) to improve the visibility of social issues among transgender groups in China and try to find ways to make their lives better. In order to achieve these goals, we conducted a semistructured interview with four adult trans-identified Chinese participants via the WeChat group. First, the stories indicate that shaping one’s transgender identity can be a very challenging process. Second, while there were also positive experiences, Chinese transgender individuals also faced many difficulties regarding their mental health, intimate relationships, public places, hormones and sequelae of transgender surgery, and the shortage of drugs available during COVID-19's pandemic. Third, at present, China's transgender support system is relatively weak. In particular, the family support is not enough, and the development of sexual minority support institutions is still in its infancy. I hope this study inspires legal and social change, contributes to the existing literature on trans studies, and has strong theoretical and practical significance.

Index Terms—Transgender individuals, China, gender identity experiences, difficulties, support.

Ziqi Shi is with the Social School of Social work, China Women's University, China (e-mail: 3291892943@qq.com).

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Cite: Ziqi Shi, "An Exploration of Transgender Individuals' Identity Experiences in the Chinese Context," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 79-84, 2022.

Copyright © 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

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