Brendan and I had a good laugh about this tattoo today. The tattoo was correctly done, but we were laughing at its meaning in Chinese slang.
In Japanese, 妖 【よう】 sometimes means "charming", but it would also mean "strange, weird, supernatural".
In Chinese, 妖 is used to describe "goblin; witch; devil; bewitching; enchanting; monster; phantom", or "seductive" as in 妖媚.
But in modern day, when someone is referred as a 人妖, it means he is a transvestite and/or transsexual, as in "chick with dick" or "tranny".
English note: "Tranny" is short for "transsexual," which is completely not the same thing as "transvestite."
ReplyDeleteGood point.
ReplyDeleteactually, tranny can be short for transsexual, transgender, or transvestite. one does not need to have gone under the knife to be derided as a tranny.
ReplyDeletein any event, all you can see in the photo is his/her neck -- by the look of the stubble, biologically the bearer of this tattoo seems to be male, but depending on the makeup and outfit s/he is wearing, the tattoo may be totally appropriate.....
ReplyDeleteYeah, it could be totally embarrassing, or it could be exactly what the guy wanted...with only the photo, we can only guess at the bearer's intentions.
ReplyDeleteyou dork. this actually does means that the bearer is a 人妖. the 妖 portion is superimposed on the living 人, so no need to further write out the 人 portion, which would be redundant (i.e. 人人妖), which wouldn't make any sense. it is a mark for fellow 人妖 to identify each other, without the rest of the world catching on. if others ask, that means they are not 人妖 and don't know what that means. in this case, the 人妖 just says it means monster, which makes them sound cool. either way, the 人妖 comes out the winner.
ReplyDeleteRe: ant
ReplyDeleteOr a female. Testosterone will cause a female to grow a beard and develop an adam's apple.
As far as I know, 「妖」 for "transsexual" or "transvestite" does not apply to those that are biologically female. For girls, 妖 is more like "witch" or even "b**ch".
ReplyDeleteHa, ha, ha... :(
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, this particular multilingual, educated, transsexual woman finds terms like 人妖 , tranny, "chick with dick", "shemale," et cetera exceedingly offensive. I can pretty safely say I speak for the vast majority of transsexual and transgendered people on this. I know we are supposed to live out our lives as entertainment fodder for you cisgendered people's Schadenfreude, but these terms are pretty much on the same classy level of discourse as "ni gger" and "k ike".
Just FYI.
Brigit,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, the original entry was not meant to be offensive and degrading the transgender community. We were merely discussing the context of the character in slang.
Before I read the entry on wikipedia about transsexuals, I have used terms like "shim" (she+him), "himshe" (him+she). I now know it is incorrect, plus they are confusing.
The term "tranny" always reminds me of transmission in an automobile, rather than a man ready get his penis chopped off and gender "re-assigned". It would never be the same when I take my truck to the garage and asking them to get the tranny fluid changed.
Plus "himshe" sounded to close to the Korean cuisine of Kimchi, pickled vegetables.
According to Wikipedia, the correct terminology is stated as following:
Gender terms used to describe transsexual people always relate to the target. (an alternative term is female-to-male transsexual or transman; compare also transwoman).
If so, then I have another question:
What would the Pontiac Trans-AM be?
Perhaps the ultimate transsexual mobile?
Alright, with all jokes aside, there is no hate here. We are just talking.
P.S. - Part of the fun of being in a Chinese cultural environment is that for whatever group you are from, there's a cutesy insult like 人妖 uncouth persons will bandy about in front of you, but the Chinese transsexual women I know much prefer 變性人。
ReplyDeleteTo describe MtF or FtM, 男變女 or 女變男 are adequate, but for pronouns, writing 妳 and 她 goes a long way to show respect for 女變性人。
tian:
ReplyDeleteI've never heard the terms "shim" or "himshe", but gender neutral English pronouns have been invented, like "ze", but I doubt they will ever be particularly appealing outside of "Genderqueer" and Pagan circles. However this neutrality in spoken Chinese can be a saving grace for visably gender-variant people.
Thankfully for many Ts women like me, it's now academic; I look like any other woman. If every Tg/Ts person wore a purple dot on their forheads tomorrow, y'all would get real scared at the sheer numbers of "monsters" among you... ;`
"The term 'tranny' always reminds me of transmission in an automobile, rather than a man ready get his penis chopped off and gender 're-assigned'."
Any man who is idiotic enough have his penis sex reassigned inevitably results in severe depression. Thankfully there are standards which try to make sure only transsexual women go surgically MtF. Whatever car a pre-op transsexual woman owns, she (cough) is only too happy to do drive it to the surgeon. ;`
"We are just talking."
I was just talking, too, stating that most of us don't find ourselves so laughable as the last acceptable Stepin Fetchits and punchlines. This sort of thing is only funny because it's oh-so easy to giggle about Ts/Tg people. Just FYI for any who might care. Everyone hates a PC party-pooper, but sometimes it's worthwhile to educate thus.
Brigit,
ReplyDeleteI am very surprised that you have never heard of "shim" or "himshe".
Here is the reference link:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shim
More slang definitions of "tranny":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tranny 2. tranny
In mechanics, a vehicle's transmission.
3. tranny
In snowboarding, refers to the transition between the table (flat) and the landing on a jump.
Hey Brigit,
ReplyDeleteI'm an English speaker just learning Chinese. I'm also an avid reader in the field of women/gender/queer studies.
I would like to correspond as I think that we may have much in common. Drop me a line at:
indy-hanzismatter@geekessay.orgAlso, to pull this thread futher afield, here are two english/chinese pages about transgender words and perspectives.
As to this thread, I've always felt that the terms shim and himshe have come from popular culture, while Kate Bornstein-esq terms like "ze" have come from within the community and academic dialog.
Also, I'm curious if 人妖 has been co-opted in any way by the Chinese speaking trans community the same way that queer has been turned positive by the English speaking gay community. I wonder if the person with this tattoo is performing a co-opting of this character.
I'd also like to get in touch with Brigit and indy -- it sounds like we have a lot in common! I'm the author of the aforementioned page of perspectives. good to see people are getting some use out of it!
ReplyDeleteThere's also a Chinese version of the page (Big5 encoding). And, as it happens, I have a page stating why I hate the term "人妖". I've had native speakers try to con me that the term is inoffensive, but if you look at its etymology, it's quite obvious that it's at least as bad as "shemale".
I'd also like to get in touch with Brigit and indy -- it sounds like we have a lot in common! I'm the author of the aforementioned page of perspectives. good to see people are getting some use out of it!
ReplyDeleteThere's also a Chinese version of the page (Big5 encoding). And, as it happens, I have a page stating why I hate the term "人妖". I've had native speakers try to con me that the term is inoffensive, but if you look at its etymology, it's quite obvious that it's at least as bad as "shemale".
I'd also like to get in touch with Brigit and indy -- it sounds like we have a lot in common! I'm the author of the aforementioned page of perspectives. It's good to see people are getting some use out of it!
ReplyDeleteThere's also a Chinese version of the page (Big5 encoding). And, as it happens, I have a page stating why I hate the term "人妖". I've had native speakers try to con me that the term is inoffensive, but if you look at its etymology, it's quite obvious that it's at least as bad as "shemale".
I'd also like to get in touch with Brigit and indy -- it sounds like we have a lot in common! I'm the author of the aforementioned page of perspectives. It's good to see people are getting some use out of it!
ReplyDeleteThere's also a Chinese version of the page (Big5 encoding). And, as it happens, I have a page stating why I hate the term "人妖". I've had native speakers try to con me that the term is inoffensive, but if you look at its etymology, it's quite obvious that it's at least as bad as "shemale".
Crud! Double post! Sorry, Blogger had a brain fart...
ReplyDeleteAs an androgyne, I find the 'shemale' interpretation hilarious, and the 'strange' and 'monster' connotations make it even better. I may have to get it put on a t-shirt.
ReplyDeleteI should mention, though, that the stubble doesn't mean anything; transition is wicked expensive, and s/he might have just not gotten the electro/laser finished yet. And a lot of us have to go stealth, since we're not protected by law or anything...
If you show this tattoo in Hong Kong it will be even funnier. In Cantonese the character "妖" is phonetically similar to the character that means f*ck. (The character is not in the Chinese Language character set; it is written as "門" with "小" inside.)
ReplyDeleteThesedays "妖" is often spoken as a more "polite" version of f*ck. So instead of saying "F*ck!" you'd say "妖!"