Transsexual (变性人, bianxingren)

If you searched this word to get here — it is not a slur, and most people who use it are just repeating what they heard in the media. But it is dated, and it often lands as offensive. Here is why, in a minute of reading.

Where it comes from: “transsexual” was a mid-20th-century medical classification, originally reserved for people seeking hormones and surgery. Its Chinese equivalent, bianxingren (变性人, literally “changed-sex person”), spread mainly through sensationalist tabloid coverage, where it kept close company with outright slurs — flattening a whole person into a single question: “have they had it done?”

Why it hurts: first, it equates identity with surgery — but being transgender is a matter of identity, not of medical steps, and many trans people never have surgery. Second, the “change” framing (bian, 变) implies a gender conjured out of nowhere, when the lived experience is usually the reverse: “I always was — I’m just letting my body and life catch up” (see transition).

What to say instead: transgender — in Chinese, kuaxingbiezhe (跨性别者), or trans woman / trans man. For the process, “transition”; for operations, “gender confirmation surgery” rather than “sex change.”

Register note: a small number of older people, mostly in English-speaking contexts, still self-identify as transsexual — respect self-identification, but never apply the word to someone who hasn’t chosen it. When quoting Chinese media that says 变性人, it costs nothing to swap in 跨性别者.

Common misuse: opening a conversation with “so have you had the surgery?” To get to know someone, start with their name and their week — bodies are not an icebreaker.