https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1238161.shtml

  • LeninWeave [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    This may also be a language issue, or a knowledge issue (writer might not understand correctly how to refer to people). Mandarin, AFAIK, doesn't really have gendered pronouns in the same way as English.

    They should probably establish editorial policies for articles like this one to avoid this exact issue.

      • LeninWeave [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        My understanding is that ta is gendered in written language (which was apparently introduced in the 20th century, before which it was gender neutral, thank you Europeans for exporting that one), but spoken there's no difference.

          • LeninWeave [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Yeah, it's not an imposition of the west or anything. It seems to have been borrowed from western tradition, though, at least based on this article I found.

            https://cross-currents.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/e-journal/articles/reading/zhao.pdf