Transexualism in China

choi

My comment:
(a) Transsexualism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexualism
(b) Roughly speaking, transsexualism WAS a medical (specifically, psychiatric) term, adopted in the DSM-III (published in 1980). The term was replaced in the DSM-IV (published in 1994) with Gender Identity Disorder. DSM is acronym for
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia ... of_Mental_Disorders
(published by the American Psychiatric Association provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders; DSM-I was published in 1952)
, where I, III and IV refers to the edition (eg, IV is the fourth edition)
(c) Americans are uncomfortable with the word "sex." So they, whenever possible, use "gender" instead, though gender is reserved for grammar, such as he v she, and fiance v fiancee. In other words, transgender is a laypersons' term.


(1) 沙磊, 中国最年长变性人：不愿隐忍一生. BBC, July 12, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... na_transexual.shtml
(今年84岁; 广东佛山; 伊玲原名钱今凡，1928年出生在中国浙江嘉兴一个大官宦家族; 与一个比自己年轻的女人结了婚，还生了一个儿子; 决定不做变性手术)

(2) John Sudworth, China's Acceptance of Transgender People. BBC, July 11, 2012 (video clip)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18805969