How to say "transsexual/transgender"

[muyongshi]

It's not a job title when Chinese people ask about it.

[flywhc]

It's not a job title when Chinese people ask about it.

Trust me as I am a Chinese. It is definitely derogatory to describe a man/woman as 人妖 if he/she is not working as an 人妖. Most famous Thai thing in China is 人妖秀, they expect you watched that show or see those 人妖 workers, especially they ask "听说人妖还是挺漂亮的，是吗？" that like "I heard that hookers are beautiful, aren't they?" implies I have never seen hookers, and you have so I am curious what they look like.

[muyongshi]

Well I am sorry but that is your very limited perspecitve. I was talking to quite a few other friends about this today and all but one said it is 中性. We talked in depth about 人妖 and non of them were referring to it as a title. I told them about those that I have seen in my travels to Thailand, the majority being normal people working in malls or at coffee shops, not what you are referring to and they were not surprised by this at all. They did not think of this in terms of workers or shows and I have never seen these shows that you refer to.

I think this perspective you are trying to bring is very skewed.

[flywhc]

I can't believe your friends are Chinese in mainland China or even Hong Kong. Maybe they are too progressive, or joking.

In Thailand and some places in south china, even some non-transsexual man with female dressing, work as dancer or waitress etc, and we call them as 人妖, not 变性人. You can ask your friend, what is different between 人妖 and 变性人.

Former one is those man (no woman) who change appearance to look like a woman for working in club. Traditionally we think that is bad, like other things in adult entrainment. Especially they changed for making money. I call it as a job title because even non-transsexual man can be called as 人妖 in such place.

Later one is a man or woman, who change their sex and want to live as a normal opposite gender role for medical reason. People respect their changed gender. It is rude to call them 人妖 because they changed gender not for working and show.

Hong Kong film <大话西游> has a well known dialogue "人是人他妈生的，妖是妖他妈生的，如果妖有一颗仁慈的心，哪他就不再是人，而是人妖" It is a humor that 'mistakenly' uses two derogatory words "他妈的" and "人妖" when the monk master (唐僧) talked to a ghost and pretended respecting him. It won't be funny if that word is not derogatory.

Besides, I can't remember any words contains 妖 and not derogatory. ask your friends gvie an example other than 人妖

maybe the world has been changed just like 'gay' was considered bad and many people are proud of being one today. I am not that old yet I think.

[in_lab]

Here's an interesting take on this from a transgender group:

http://intermargins.net/Forum/2003/dictionary/dic05.htm

It criticizes the definitions from the MOE dictionary:

解釋 男變女、女變男、生理上有變異，或假裝為異性之人。例泰國有名的人妖秀，大部分由男變性人化妝表演。

解釋 譏諷喜歡過分妝扮的人。例 瞧她臉上抹得一塊紅，一塊紫的，真像個人妖。

It offers up its own suggestions:

解釋 跨越性別的泰國歌舞表演者。例 旅行社常常用人妖秀來吸引民眾到泰國旅遊。

解釋 對男變女或男扮女的蔑視稱呼。例 只有那些眼光短淺、心胸狹隘的人才會以人妖譏笑別人。

And it suggests adding 跨性別 to the dictionary.