Pansexual

The prefix pan- is Greek for “all.” Pansexual describes an orientation in which gender is not a precondition for attraction: a pansexual person may be drawn to men, women, or nonbinary people, with the pull anchored in the person themselves. A phrasing many pansexual people use: “I see the person, not the gender.” The Chinese rendering is 泛性恋 (fanxinglian), built the same way — 泛 means “broad, all-encompassing.”

The most-asked question is how this differs from bisexual: the two labels overlap heavily, and plenty of people feel both fit. Some prefer “pan” to make the inclusion of nonbinary people explicit; others prefer “bi” for its longer history and larger community. Neither choice is more correct or “more evolved.”

Register note: most at home in community and younger internet spaces; “pan” is the casual shorthand in both English and Chinese contexts.

Common misuse: reading pan- as “attracted to everyone,” or worse, as an anything-goes caricature. Pansexuality means gender is not a filter — it does not mean no filters at all. Pansexual people have types, standards, and complete indifference to most individuals, like everyone else.