There are only two genders in China.
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In the West, things seem to have changed when it comes to determining what gender you are in recent times. When I was a young boy, I was told that girls were made of sugar and spice and all things nice, boys were made of slugs and snails and puppy dogs tail and if anybody ever dared to have claimed there was a third option, you were supposed to run away as fast as you can and tell a grown up. Now there’s 56 other genders to choose from and I really don’t know how these kids are ever going to be able to remember them all or know which one they really are.
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Thankfully, over here in the Middle Kingdom it is not going to be a problem that any of us will likely ever have to face. Although cross dressing is a tradition with a history of 13 centuries in China (Chou, 1997, pg.131); not to mention what the arrival of communism did attempt to deconstruct traditional gender roles to the extent that the declaration was made that ‘women hold up half of the sky’ (Cheng, 1997, pg. 298), there are few examples of it ever being proposed for additional genders to be added to the list.
Never in China, will one see protests demanding the installation of a non-binary washroom that is reserved for the exclusive use of that select non-binary minority; space often comes at a premium and the only washroom in many a restaurant or coffee shop will be made available for use by anybody regardless of gender; it is simply not an issue that would even register upon the minds of the vast majorities of people. They have much more important things to worry about.
Despite the efforts that were made in the past to remove the barriers between the sexes, gender plays such as important role in defining one’s identity in China that the sudden existence of other gender options could only make what is already a not so uncomfortable existence too much to bear. Compared to the West, a much greater level of importance is placed upon marriage; any barrier that stands in the way of marriage is not likely to be welcomed. As a cultural institution that for the best part is still considered to be the ultimate expression of love between a man and woman (gay marriage is not yet legal in China) and a necessary foundation for a couple to start a family (birth of wedlock is still heavily frowned upon), identifying as being of a non-binary gender could deprive an individual’s life of meaning and cause them to be shunned by their parents and other family members.
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The darker side of the attack upon the traditional bi-genderism model taking place must also be acknowledged. It is increasingly obvious that the progressive agenda being pushed in the West is being done so with the intention of gradually destroying Western civilization from within and already the effects of the ongoing decline are visible for the world to see.
Probably wary of suffering the same fate, China may via the enforcement of certain regulations seek to guard against the influence of mostly liberal, foreign forces infiltrating their academic and cultural institutions like they have done in Western countries. This deprives the gender-neutral movements a large amount of access to power and influence over the minds of vulnerable and impressionable young minds in this country.
However, the most vital factor might just be the fact that when something is not broken, one will not see a need to fix it. It could be argued that no other country in the world possesses a history as long and rich as that of China. What’s more, for their whole 5000 years they’ve managed to cope perfectly with just two genders all the time. Maybe that’s something that people from the Western world can learn from. China. 5000 years. 2 genders.
REFERENCES:
Cheng, H. (1997), ‘Holding up Half of the Sky’? A Sociocultural Comparison of Gender‐Role Portrayals in Chinese and US Advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 16: 295-319. doi:10.1111/j.0265-0487.1997.00063.pp.x
Chou, Hui-ling. (1997). Striking Their Own Poses: The History of Cross-Dressing on the Chinese Stage. TDR (1988-), 41(2), 130-152. doi:10.2307/1146629