Until Western influences and complaints about the inability to translate "she" into Chinese, the Chinese language did not have a gendered pronoun.
他 was used for male, female, and even animals and objects. It was simply a generic 'it'.
Then Westerners came in and insisted that the patriarchy get even more so and eventually the word 她 started to come into use (but with much debate and some resistance).
Today as we celebrate our non binary friends and as the English language struggles with having a non gendered pronoun, there is a movement to ditch the 她 and go back to simply using 他 for everyone.
Another thing Western colonialism ruined
Happy pride month!
https://www.harvard-yenching.org/research/cultural-history-of-the-chinese-character-ta/
Chu 朱 /
npub1wu…2036n
2024-06-03 14:46:31
Author Public Key
npub1wu02wemlr24hhdhfw28cscw5k0eqlgdvnmcutw8v2dsr3y3472jq72036nSeen on
wss://relay.nostr.bandPublished at
2024-06-03 14:46:31Event JSON
{
"id": "8dcaa76a3f893a36d15b62cc3001b32acd51be0beab81e28832078bc28938ef0",
"pubkey": "771ea7677f1aab7bb6e9728f8861d4b3f20fa1ac9ef1c5b8ec5360389235f2a4",
"created_at": 1717425991,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"proxy",
"https://climatejustice.social/@chu/112553229759676316",
"web"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://climatejustice.social/users/chu/statuses/112553229759676316",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://climatejustice.social/users/chu/statuses/112553229759676316",
"pink.momostr"
]
],
"content": "Until Western influences and complaints about the inability to translate \"she\" into Chinese, the Chinese language did not have a gendered pronoun. \n\n他 was used for male, female, and even animals and objects. It was simply a generic 'it'. \n\nThen Westerners came in and insisted that the patriarchy get even more so and eventually the word 她 started to come into use (but with much debate and some resistance). \n\nToday as we celebrate our non binary friends and as the English language struggles with having a non gendered pronoun, there is a movement to ditch the 她 and go back to simply using 他 for everyone. \n\nAnother thing Western colonialism ruined\n\nHappy pride month! \n\nhttps://www.harvard-yenching.org/research/cultural-history-of-the-chinese-character-ta/",
"sig": "fccb7ba6da608c2a4fcf2be77ff03b3e7878fc1c82aaac445d113a6675cf1118c7931aa2d98a419ee6cec8785243f6c273ca046a7fbf5ff37205211bcfb3adeb"
}