\n For a long time, the Hong Kong native, who uses they\/them pronouns in English, had no easy answer because Chinese pronouns are largely split into two when referring to people \u2013 a male and female form \u2013 and neither felt right.\n <\/p>\n
\n Finally, in 2017, Law came across a potential solution: an unofficial pronoun that had been invented by the intersex and non-binary community. The character looked similar to the existing Chinese pronouns but was altered with what looked like an X on the side, which reminded Law of Gender X \u2013 the \u201cthird pronoun\u201d sometimes used on IDs and passports in other countries.\n <\/p>\n
\n Despite having been around for nearly a decade, this invented Chinese pronoun has remained on the fringes for one reason: as an unofficial character, it doesn\u2019t exist on our keyboards, and while it\u2019s often stylized as X\u4e5f, that\u2019s a hassle to type and confusing to people who are unfamiliar with it.\n <\/p>\n
\n That, however, could soon change. In September, the pronoun was added to Unicode \u2013 a global standard of symbols and characters used by web developers and tech giants worldwide.\n <\/p>\n
\n This means users may eventually be able to type the character on phones and laptops, and search and display it online. The process could take several more years, but it\u2019s been celebrated nonetheless as a major step toward broader recognition \u2013 especially in China, where conservative attitudes and government crackdowns have made life increasingly tough for the LGBTQ+ community.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHaving a pronoun that is more specifically addressed to people who do not want to be labeled or boxed within the male and female pronouns \u2026 could be a really good alternative,\u201d said Law, also a PhD candidate in gender and sexuality studies.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s \u201cthe acknowledgement (that) people like myself do exist, and we are not erased within \u2026 those binary systems, whether it\u2019s language or culture or history itself.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Chinese pronouns weren\u2019t always so binary. In fact, the language didn\u2019t have gendered pronouns to begin with \u2013 what\u2019s now considered the male pronoun, \u4ed6, was once used for all people.\n <\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s evident in how it\u2019s written, too. Chinese characters are composed of building blocks that often offer clues about their meaning or origin; in the case of the once-universal pronoun, its building blocks simply mean \u201cperson,\u201d without any indication of gender.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFor thousands of years, it seems that nobody felt the need to make this distinction,\u201d wrote Chinese scholar Huang Xingtao in his 2009 book on the topic<\/a>. But in the early 20th century, China came into greater contact with Western nations \u2013 pushing the country to \u201cvigorously create new characters \u2026 to express certain terms in Western languages.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s also when China\u2019s early feminist movement gained momentum, with activists demanding women\u2019s independence, education, and representation \u2013 including in the written word.\n <\/p>\n \n These concurrent movements birthed the new female pronoun, \u5979. It is pronounced \u201cta,\u201d the same as the original \u4ed6, the new X\u4e5f, and other Chinese pronouns used for animals and inanimate objects.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s why some people now argue that the creation of a new gender-neutral pronoun is unnecessary, as that\u2019s what existed in the first place.\n <\/p>\n \n These linguistic evolutions have wide-reaching implications. Chinese has the highest number of native speakers out of all languages worldwide, and is used from Hong Kong to Taiwan to Chinese-speaking diasporas. Even Sinitic languages like Cantonese, distinct from Mandarin in many ways, share many written characters.\n <\/p>\n \n Fan, a 23-year-old agender Hong Konger, tried to adopt the \u4ed6 pronoun when they began using they\/them pronouns a few years ago. After all, they figured, it was once gender-neutral, and is still sometimes used that way.\n <\/p>\n \n But, they said writing the \u4ed6 character felt \u201cnot very right for me.\u201d That\u2019s because it\u2019s now too widely associated with maleness, which \u201cmade me realize we are past the stage where we could use it as a gender-neutral pronoun,\u201d they said.\n <\/p>\n \n Instead, Fan uses another alternative that has become popular among Chinese speakers: writing out the English letters TA in all caps. This captures how all Chinese pronouns are said out loud, but strips away the \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d of written characters that would typically indicate gender.\n <\/p>\n \n Compared to X\u4e5f, which remains niche, TA is more widely seen, especially in mainland China. It has appeared on social media as well as in ad campaigns and other mainstream materials, said Kaspar Wan, founder of the Hong Kong-based transgender rights organization Gender Empowerment.\n <\/p>\n \n But even those who use TA say there\u2019s something odd about inserting English letters in a sentence of Chinese characters.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cUsually I use TA, but I do find that having another Chinese (written pronoun) is quite important for me,\u201d said Fan, \ufeffwho CNN is identifying by their nickname for privacy reasons.\n <\/p>\n \n Law agrees \u2013 TA \u201cstill looks like an English word to me,\u201d which makes it \u201cnot very satisfying,\u201d they said. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to being able to type (X\u4e5f) with my phone \u2026 if this pronoun is much more easy to type, I would actually prefer it over TA.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It wasn\u2019t a straightforward path to get X\u4e5f added to Unicode. One of the main figures responsible was Michael Bauer \u2013 who works in language services, including translation, and is himself half-Cantonese. He and a partner submitted a Unicode application for the character in late 2020, nearly five years before it was approved and added to the standard this September.\n <\/p>\n \n And challenges still remain, Bauer told a panel on the topic earlier this summer. It could take months or years for tech platforms and font manufacturers to update their systems and implement this new character so that users can easily search and type it on their devices, he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Even then, there\u2019s the task of convincing people to actually use it. In Hong Kong, for instance, most people speak Cantonese, an informal and colloquial language that has its own version of a gender-neutral pronoun \u2013 lessening the demand for a new character, said Wan, of rights group Gender Empowerment.\n <\/p>\n \n But everyone who spoke to CNN agreed that the move holds symbolic power, regardless of any practical difficulties.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNow that Unicode has this character, if you use it, people may say \u2013 oh, you\u2019re non-binary,\u201d said Wan. It lends weight and legitimacy to the pronoun; instead of being an unofficial character made up by a few individuals, it\u2019s now \u201cpart of the grammar, or part of the language,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n That\u2019s especially important given that Chinese-speaking cultures often lean more conservative on LGBTQ+ rights and representation. In mainland China, the community has faced an intensifying crackdown since Xi Jinping came to power more than a decade ago; Pride parades have been canceled,<\/a> films and TV shows featuring same-sex themes banned, and LGBTQ+ accounts<\/a> shut down on the nation\u2019s most popular messaging app.\n <\/p>\n \n Hong Kong \u2013 a former British colony and international finance hub \u2013 is generally more open-minded than mainland China, though it has yet to recognize same-sex marriage or legislate against discrimination based on sexual orientation, despite successive court rulings urging greater equality.\n <\/p>\n \n The city has also undergone a national security crackdown<\/a> in recent years that has stifled dissent and caught up many leading LGBTQ+ activists, many of whom were also pro-democracy campaigners\n <\/p>\n![\"Customers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gettyimages-2203909985.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/gettyimages-496089018.jpg\")
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