Half Yin, Half Yang: Xie Jianshun and Intersexuality in 1950s Taiwan

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the story of Xie Jianshun (謝尖順), the first intersex individual to undergo “corrective” genital surgery in 1950s Taiwan. Often referred to as the “Chinese Christine,” the news media in Taiwan at the time often compared Xie to Christine Jorgensen, the first American and ex-GI to have undergone sex reassignment surgery in 1952. During a period when the Nationalist army had shortly retreated to Taiwan following the Chinese Civil War, Xie’s surgical transition was portrayed as a medical accomplishment that can elevate the status of the National government. Jorgensen, on the other hand, was depicted in a way to reassert traditional gender norms in the US during a post-war period with rapid changes in gender relations. In similar ways, the portrayals of Xie Jianshun and Christine Jorgensen were politicized to accommodate contemporary political discourses, whether it is the reinforcement of political legitimacy in the case of 1950s Taiwan or the reinforcement of heteronormative beliefs in the case of the 1950s US. However, despite such similarities, as an intersex person who was unwilling to transition to a woman, Xie’s gender identity greatly differed from Jorgensen’s, a transgender woman who had long sought to transition. Interestingly, whereas rumors posited that Jorgensen could be intersex, Xie was readily portrayed as a transgender woman who had fully adapted to her new female identity. In delving into how the media readily conflated concepts of intersexuality and transgenderism in both Xie’s and Jorgensen’s cases, this paper strives to further uncover key insights as to how intersexuality and transgenderism were perceived during the 1950s.

Half Yin, Half Yang: Xie Jianshun and Intersexuality in 1950s Taiwan

On August 31, 1955, the front page of the United Daily News revealed that Xie Jianshun’s fourth and final surgery in Taipei was a resounding success and a major advancement that was a testament to the country’s medical capabilities. Next to the headings “Xie Jianshun’s sex-change operation was successful; Xie is now used to living as a woman,” a photo of Xie as a man was juxtaposed with an alleged photo of Xie as a woman. For thirty-three days, Xie’s story was reported by a United Daily News journalist under the pen name Yi Yi, who delved into not only the progression of Xie’s surgical procedures but also Xie’s backstory as a Nationalist army soldier from Chaozhou, Guangdong. Less than a decade since the Nationalist army had retreated to Taiwan following the Chinese Civil War, the news media at the time called Xie the “Christine of Free China” or “Chinese Christine,” an allusion to Christine Jorgensen, who at the time had become a transgender celebrity after receiving her sex reassignment surgery. As the first intersex person to undergo “corrective” genital surgery in 1950s Taiwan, Xie’s surgery was in turn hailed as a medical feat by the Nationalist government in Taiwan. In short, this paper aims to examine how intersex and transgender discourses were politicized in popular media during post-Cold War Taiwan. To do so, this paper will use a transnational framework to analyze the ways in which the media sought to utilize Jorgensens’ narrative as a transgender woman to construct Xie’s story as an intersex person.  

Commonly referred to as yin yang ren (陰陽人) in Mandarin or puànn iam iûnn á (半陰陽仔) in Taiwanese Hokkien, the existence of intersex people has long been known to the Taiwanese public. Therefore, in order to describe Xie’s condition, initial reports used the term yin yang ren when depicting Xie’s status as intersex. However, to also account for how novel surgeries have the ability to alter one’s sex, the term bian xing ren (變性人) or transexual was also used to refer to Xie just as it was applied to Jorgensen in her reports in Taiwanese media. Likely a result of such categorization of Xie and Jorgensen under the same category of sex, misrepresentations of Jorgensen as intersex and Xie as transgender were readily apparent in Taiwanese reports of them. Meanwhile, in US media, instead of using the current term “intersex,” an intersex individual was either categorized as a “true hermaphrodite” or a “pseudohermaphrodite” given their common usage in scientific and medical literature. Whereas true hermaphrodites referred to individuals who possessed both ovarian and testicular tissues, pseudohermaphrodites referred to individuals who had gonadal dysgenesis (Guidotto 2008). To account for the widespread usage of these scientific and medical terminologies in Western media, the terms true hermaphrodite and pseudohermaphrodite were also translated by Taiwanese journalists in Xie’s reports. In turn, a continued fixation over whether Jorgensen and Xie were true hermaphrodites or pseudohermaphrodites proved to be critical in determining the turn of events for Xie. 

From describing Xie as being “discovered as the Chinese Christine” to depicting Xie’s successful transition as an inspiration for other Christines in the world, the news reports published about Xie constantly portrayed Xie’s stories in relation to Jorgensen’s. Portrayed as an ex-GI who became a “blonde beauty” by the New York Daily News, Jorgensen gained a considerable amount of fame after her sex reassignment surgery in 1952. Although Jorgensen was erroneously described as the first individual to have received sex reassignment surgery, she was indeed the first individual to have undergone hormone therapy prior to her surgery. While people were still grappling with whether Jorgensen should be regarded as a woman or not, most press accounts seemed to have “granted” Jorgensen’s status as a woman. Even so, there were still claims of Jorgensen being a “fake,” implying that Jorgensen was actually a man posing as a woman (Meyerowitz 2006). There were also attempts to rationalize her desire to live as a woman with speculations that Jorgensen could be intersexed. Although there were rumors that Jorgensen could be either a true hermaphrodite or a pseudohermaphrodite, her physicians ultimately concluded that Jorgensen was in fact physically a “standard male” prior to her surgery. However, positing that gender should be regarded as a spectrum or continuum rather than a binary, Jorgensen and her doctors also sought to redefine sex as a biologically driven concept. In response to a question asking whether she was a woman, Jorgensen responded, “You seem to assume that every person is either a man or a woman. Each person is actually both in varying degrees….I’m more of a woman than I am a man.” Considering the concept of a “universally mixed bodily sex,” doctors and scientists began replacing the concept of psychological sex with gender. Furthermore, reaffirming that she identified as a woman and not as a gay man, Jorgensen’s story also complicated widely accepted notions on sexuality and solidified transgenderism as a separate concept from homosexuality (Meyerowitz 2006).

During a time when queer people were often the victims of police brutality and incarceration, Jorgensen’s success as a celebrity stood out as an anomaly in how queer people were perceived and treated. Even with the negative press that questioned Jorgensen’s authenticity as a woman, it somehow increased her overall appeal as it also drew in voices of sympathy. As opposed to being chastised for her gender identity and sexuality, Jorgensen was instead portrayed as the “good transexual.” As analyzed by Emily Skidmore, Jorgensen’s image of a blond, heterosexual, and domestically oriented woman simultaneously introduced transexuality to the public while reassuring the public of the continued dominance of White heteronormativity. Specifically, in distancing herself from homosexuality and transvestism while reemphasizing conservative gender norms, Jorgensen appeared to have gained acceptance in large part due to her avoidance of other sex and gender variant categories that were deemed pathological (Skidmore 2011). In addition, while the exciting prospect of modern science having the capability to change sex contributed to the popularity of Jorgensen, it also coincided with a rising Frankensteinian vision that using science to tamper with nature could mess with social order. Especially during a post-war era with heightened anxiety over the realignment of gender roles, a heavy emphasis on Jorgensen’s adherence to heteronormativity, in terms of her feminine appearance and behaviors, likely served as a means for the media to reassert what counted as feminine or masculine (Skidmore 2011).

In many ways, the discourses on sex, gender, and sexuality that arose during and after Xie Jianshun’s surgeries paralleled the conversations surrounding Christine Jorgensen after her surgery. Similar to the New York Daily News, there were a few discussions in the United Daily News reports speculating whether Xie was a true hermaphrodite or a pseudohermaphrodite. Interestingly, they mistakenly noted that Christine Jorgensen was a true hermaphrodite. Reporting on Xie’s status as a yin yang ren, the news reports disparagingly defined intersex people as being “deformed beings who are half male and half female, both male and female, yet neither male nor female.” Although the differences between true hermaphroditism and pseudohermaphroditism were not explicitly discussed, it was stated that it is difficult even for a seasoned physician to diagnose an intersex person. From a medical perspective, it was concluded that in the reports that one cannot really determine an intersex person’s status as a true hermaphrodite or pseudohermaphrodite based on looks or behaviors alone.

Moreover, Xie Jianshun’s case also led physicians to briefly question their definitions of sex, gender, and sexuality. In particular, the physicians who diagnosed Xie stated their intentions to remain cautious when determining Xie’s gender identity. In order to do so, Xie’s physicians sought to determine Xie’s gender identity based on whether he showed signs of attraction toward a group of female nurses who were assigned to care for Xie prior to the first surgery. Through Xie’s interactions with nurses, the physicians were hoping that they could better determine Xie’s gender identity through observing emotions and facial expressions. Although it was assumed that Xie had a “hidden female sex,” both physicians and the press believed that they were being careful in their approach to ascertain Xie’s gender identity. However, despite an initial attempt to decouple gender from biological sex, there appeared to be a conflation of gender identity with sexuality instead.

As pointed out by Howard Chiang in “Transexual Taiwan,” Xie’s first surgery, which was an exploratory laparotomy to examine whether Xie indeed had both male and female reproductive organs, was a key turning point in the media’s depiction of Xie (Chiang 2020). Analyzing the news reports published by United Daily News, it is apparent that there are stark differences in the gendered depictions of Xie before and after his first surgery. In the beginning, Xie did publically express to the press a strong wish to remain a man. As such, instead of directly depicting Xie as someone who was destined to become a woman, the news media first constructed an image of Xie being a heterosexual man with an unfortunate birth defect. Once it was revealed that Xie was indeed a true hermaphrodite with ovaries and intact fallopian tubes, both Xie’s physicians and the media abruptly reached the same conclusion that Xie’s ultimate fate was to transition into a woman. Subsequently referring to Xie as “Ms. Xie Jianshun” instead of “Mr. Xie Jianshun” or “Comrade Xie Jianshun,” all news reports following the laparotomy also opted for the use of the female pronoun ta (她) when mentioning Xie (Chiang 2020). 

Despite having never referred to himself as a woman let alone the Chinese Christine, Xie’s story was nonetheless sensationalized by the media in a similar way to Jorgensen’s. Besides both having a military background, Xie and Jorgensen did not appear to have much in common. As an intersex and not a transgender individual, Xie’s surgery was also not based on a personal desire to acquire a change in appearance that aligned with his gender identity. Instead of capitalizing on the publicity to become a celebrity, Xie also chose to remain a low-profile life as Xie Shun. Towards the end of the news articles, it was also speculated that Xie wanted to remain out of the public eye due to a fear that “exposing her past as a man would affect her chances of marriage.” While being both held to heteronormative standards for women, whereas Jorgensen went public with intentions to marry a man as witnessed in her two engagement announcements, Xie, on the other hand, had never outwardly expressed a desire to do so.

After garnering a large amount of media attention, a narrative was constructed around Xie that as the “Christine of the East,” Xie’s surgery was a medical achievement that could elevate the status of the Nationalist government. Xie’s condition, which was labeled as being “truly rare in the world’s medical history,” was therefore presented as having the potential of contributing to the advancement of biomedical research. In the hopes of demonstrating its capabilities to perform one of the most novel surgeries at the time, medicine was therefore politicized by the government for the purposes of reinforcing political legitimacy. Especially during a post-Cold War era when American modern medicine was adopted in Taiwan under Nationalist rule, a fixation of the West likely motivated the construction of a narrative that physicians in Taiwan could also perform a state-on-the-art surgery on par with Western physicians (Liu 2017). Jorgensen, as the “Christine of the West,” was therefore held as a standard of comparison for Xie in terms of how successful Xie’s surgeries actually were. 

As a result, there were ongoing discussions of how Jorgensen’s surgery was not as successful as many had thought given that she still needed a vaginoplasty. Based on these discussions, Xie was even depicted as being better than Jorgensen given that Xie’s body was regarded as being more naturally female-presenting. To further achieve the goal of making Xie look even more convincing as a woman, Xie was also asked to undergo hormone therapy in addition to receiving a vaginoplasty. In turn, the media also contributed to this notion by hyper-feminizing the portrayals of Xie’s appearance post-surgery to underscore how successful the surgeries were. In a news report published on October 18, 1995 titled “Remarkably Fair and Soft Skin,” Yi Yi wrote, 

Although she is almost a middle-aged woman, her skin is still as beautiful as that of a young girl. Even in the presence of a nurse, she said to a male comrade in a shy yet gloating manner, “Look at how fair and soft my skin is. It looks healthier than a lot of women’s.” Based on this quote, we can infer how strikingly beautiful Ms. Xie’s skin is. On the other hand, we can also tell how extremely proud Ms. Xie is of the beauty of her skin.

Ms. Xie can be described as having a Lin Daiyu (林黛玉) type of figure, although she is not as sorrowful or sickly as Lin Daiyu. Years of being in the military and experiencing multiple hardships have likely strengthened her mind. Thus, when we call her a Lin Daiyu type of woman, we are referring to her petite figure (United Daily News 1955).

Upon closer examination, in between the lines describing Xie’s appearance as a stunningly beautiful woman, there are also various attempts to construct Xie’s gender identity and behaviors as being hyper-feminine as well. In some ways, this emphasis on how Xie presented as a woman who, for the most part, closely adhered to gender stereotypes corresponded with how Jorgensen was also presented as a “good transexual” who fulfilled the societal expectations of women. In both cases, despite the novelty of how contemporary science and medicine possessed the capability to alter sex, the subsequent reportings still clung to the belief that such advancement in science and medicine does not challenge pre-existing heteronormative ideologies.

Looking back at the reports of Xie, biological determinism was also apparent in the assumptions that changes in one’s anatomy would swiftly bring about changes in one’s gender identity. In particular, it was readily assumed that one would inadvertently start to perform gender in line with gender expectations after the alteration of one’s gonads. Despite being the main outlet for Xie to express his reluctance to transition and his dissatisfaction with his physicians, the news reports ultimately gave the impression that transitioning for Xie was simply a matter of growing into the role of a woman, which was assumed to come naturally as Xie’s appearance and anatomy have already been altered. Although there were glimpses into how accepted beliefs surrounding sex, gender, and sexuality were being readdressed, the notion that “biology trumps psychology” ultimately prevailed when it came to determining Xie’s sex and gender. Interestingly, the revealing of Xie’s status as a true hermaphrodite served a critical juncture which resulted in both Xie’s physicians and the popular press deciding Xie’s sex and gender without his input. Despite possessing both female and male gonads, an emphasis on Xie’s possession of ovaries and fallopian tubes, as well as supposed female identity, eventually eclipsed Xie’s expressed male identity. As such, one would wonder: If Xie had been revealed as a pseudohermaphrodite with only male gonads but ambiguous genitalia and female secondary characteristics, would Xie’s physicians, the government, and the media have been as eager to magnify Xie’s femininity? 

All in all, from a political perspective, the media’s framing of Xie as the Chinese Christine corresponded to a time when the Nationalist government sought to establish political legitimacy as the face of “Free China.” As a subject used for nation-building, Xie’s own voice was drowned out by the voices of the government, physicians, and the media, all of whom were eager to construct an image of being medically and technologically on-par with the US. From a scientific and medical standpoint, the Xie Jianshun incident also revealed the intricacies of how sex, gender, and sexuality were perceived by both physicians and the general public in 1950s Taiwan. Specifically, it imparted how biological determinism was heavily influential in shaping the newly formed discourses surrounding intersexuality and transgenderism. In particular, Xie’s status as a true hermaphrodite, as opposed to a pseudohermaphrodite, turned out to be a pivotal point in Xie’s diagnosis and subsequent treatment. From a current viewpoint, even though true hermaphroditism and pseudohermaphroditism are now categorized under the term intersex, it is perplexing to see how biological determinism continues to influence not just prominent discourses of gender but also opinions that support unnecessary surgeries to “correct” intersexed bodies. Far from being just an isolated event of the past, a fixation on strict biological definitions of sex, as observed in Xie Jianshun’s story, continues to be an obstacle in protecting the rights of intersex people.

References 

Chiang, Howard. After Eunuchs: Science, Medicine, and the Transformation of Sex in Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. 

Guidotto, Nadia. “Monsters in the Closet: Biopolitics and Intersexuality” in Wagadu. Intersecting Gender and Disability Perspectives in Rethinking Postcolonial Identities, edited by Naidu Parekh, 48-64. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corp, 2008. 

Liu, Michael Shiyung. “Transforming Medical Paradigms in 1950s Taiwan.” East Asian Science, Technology and Society 11, no. 4 (2017): 477–97. https://doi.org/10.1215/18752160-4197874.

Meyerowitz, Joanna. “Transforming Sex: Christine Jorgensen in the Postwar U.S.” OAH Magazine of History 20, no. 2 (2006): 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/20.2.16. 

Skidmore, Emily “Constructing the “Good Transsexual”: Christine Jorgensen, Whiteness, and Heteronormativity in the Mid-Twentieth-Century Press” Feminist Studies 37, no. 2 (2011): 270-300.

Primary Sources: http://sex.ncu.edu.tw/blognews/?p=7709

Featured Image: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/intersex-celebrating-beauty-difference-a7339656.html