Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Chinese government official becomes a woman aged 84
An 84-year-old retired government official from southern China has become an unlikely trailblazer for transgender rights after speaking out about his decision to become a woman – in his ninth decade of life.

By Tom Phillips in Shanghai
10:09AM BST 14 Jun 2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9330965/Chinese-government-official-becomes-a-woman-aged-84.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9330965/Chinese-government-official-becomes-a-woman-aged-84.html)

Qian Jinfan was born in Jiaxing, a city around 50 miles from Shanghai, in 1928. A Chinese calligrapher, literary theorist and art collector, he built a career as a mid-ranking civil servant in Foshan, in southern Guangdong province, and married aged 54. Four years ago, aged 80, he decided he wanted to be a woman.

This week Mr Qian spoke publicly for the first time about his decision, transforming himself into an unusual symbol of changing attitudes toward sex and sexuality in China.

"This is my real-self. I have covered myself up for the past 80-ish years," Mr Qian, who now prefers to be called Yi Ling, uses female lavatories and is reputedly China's oldest openly transgender person, told Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily.

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Man enough to be a woman at 84

http://shanghaiist.com/2012/06/14/man-enough-to-be-a-woman-at-84.php (http://shanghaiist.com/2012/06/14/man-enough-to-be-a-woman-at-84.php)

Qian Jinfan (钱今凡), a 84-year-old calligrapher, art critic and retired government official based in Foshan, has become China's oldest openly transgender individual, after outing herself in an an exclusive interview with the Southern Metropolitan Daily, in her bid to promote understanding of transgenders in China.

Born male in 1928 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province in a family of civil servants, Qian told the Daily that she realised she was trapped in the wrong body as early as three years old.

[...]

Throughout their lives, Qian's parents remained clueless that their son secretly wished to become a woman. When Qian got married as a man at the age of 54, the wife too was totally unaware.

It was not until December 2008, at the grand old age of 80, did Qian feel the time was now or never to start taking female hormones, and to dress as a woman.

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Man kept transgender secret for over 75 years

   Shanghai Daily, June 14, 2012

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-06/14/content_25644690.htm (http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-06/14/content_25644690.htm)

In September 2009, Qian wrote a letter to the Foshan Cultural, Radio, TV, Film, Press and Publication Bureau in Guangdong Province, where he retired, to express his intention.

"I didn't write the letter on impulse. I didn't care whether the authority would degrade my ranking or decrease my income," he said.

After revealing his secret, his relatives, friends and the bureau have shown understanding.

"I had prepared to die to defend my decision. To my surprise, they were all very open and accepted it," he said.

It's never too late to be yourself
Updated: 2012-07-04 09:35
By Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou ( China Daily)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-07/04/content_15547303.htm (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-07/04/content_15547303.htm)

While Qian Jinfan wanted to become a female from age 3, it wasn't until age 80 that she did.

And in June, the 84-year-old Foshan native in Guangdong province became the country's oldest person to open up about her transgender identity, bringing a media maelstrom that has led her wife and son to "ground" her.

However, she snuck out of her home to speak with China Daily for an exclusive interview because she believes it's time Chinese society understands its transgender members.

"People may ask why I come out as a transgender person when I'm so old, but I ask, why can't I?" Qian says. "Chinese stereotype the elderly as people who can't do anything but wait for death. But I've just entered the best time of my life. I can finally be myself."

 11 July 2012 Last updated at 20:01 ET

China's 'oldest transsexual': A life of silent denial
By John Sudworth BBC News, Forshan, Guangdong province
Chinese transsexual Yi Ling Yi Ling says it took her a long time to admit who she really was

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18802355 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18802355)

When I meet Yi Ling, her long black hair worn over her shoulder and a designer handbag slung over her arm, she is already quite a media personality.

Her story has been covered in both the Chinese and the international press. And no wonder.

At the age of 84 she is being billed as China's oldest transsexual, after finally making her decision, just three years ago, to submit to a life-long yearning to live as a woman.

But very few foreign news organisations have travelled to her home town of Forshan, in China's southern Guangdong province.

Sad that she had to wait so long. :(

But I'm glad she's happy now! :D

EDIT: Post number 1,000 baby!

I remember attending a group in Santa Monica when I lived in the LA area. A transwoman there had gone through her real life test, obtained her letters, and was ultimately refused surgery by Dr. Biber (who was the bomb back then for GRS). He said that he didn't want to risk surgery with her age. I don't know how old she was. I just remember she was really spunky. I cried for her. I'm pretty emotional that way. I'm a real boob.