Trans people in china, laws, advocacy groups and general acceptance
Yesterday I started looking into trans acceptance and understanding in china. I came across articles about Jin Xing, china first trans clinic for minors (opened in 2021), China's laws regarding obtaining HRT or GRS (mostly western sources), searched Bilibili and Baidu (videos) using the terms 同志, 變性 and 跨性别 combing through the comments. Finally looking through the stories of trans people who visited or worked in china.
I was surprised to find lots of roadblocks for trans people attempting to get HRT, GRS, change there paperwork etc. For example if you want to obtain HRT in china as a trans women you must notify your family, get written acceptance, prove you have no criminal record and undergo psychological treatment. This leads to a lot of trans people getting HRT online. However as of 2022 estradiol and cyproterone where added to a list making it illegal to obtain online.
The comment sections of videos on the topic are pretty bad id say similar to transphobic comments left in videos in America. The stories of non passing trans people who traveled to china getting mocked, belittled or in some cases having the police called on them. All of this shocked me and due to the language barrier I attempted to look past some of the comments or dismiss some of the horror stories.
It appears to me that china is severely behind on Trans acceptance and that's why I'd like to open this up as a discussion on the matter as I am only one person who understands little mandarin or other Chinese dialects and would greatly appreciate any information on the matter.
You might also be interested in this 2017 study, "Survey Report on the Survival of the Transgender Community in China" published by the Beijing LGBT Center and the Department of Sociology at Peking University: Brief, PDF. It surveys trans people about several things, including their methods of accessing hormones, how they feel out in public, rating different types of workplaces for how trans-friendly or unfriendly they feel, etc.
As well as this one from 2018, "Legal Gender Recognition in China: A Legal and Policy Review" by UNDP and China Women’s
University: Info and links to PDFs. This one is mainly a review that goes into detail about several laws that affect trans people and recommending specific improvements legislators, government ministries, businesses, NGOs, etc. can make. It also includes information from key informant interviews. (Article about the review)