Tianyi Bai

This research explores how Chinese transgender youths interact with normative cis-hetero-chronology. My project critically engages with two Chinese trans-centered organizations in Guangzhou and Wuhan that support local trans folks differently. The coastal Guangzhou one is a regulated NGO that claims to support all gender-nonconforming peoples but often only reaches middle-class, well-educated members; another in inland Wuhan is an institutionalized network that supports a particularly classed group of young transfemmes who often struggle with domestic violence, homelessness, unemployment, and mental health issues. The first NGO’s work seems to be future-oriented, while the other network advises its service recipients to forgo transformative projects and focus on the present. How might the geopolitical difference of these two cities shape their respective futural orientations? What insights might this difference unveil about the complex landscape of belonging and inclusion among differently positioned trans folks in China? I propose connecting futurity with transness to unpack the temporal horizons of seemingly fixed social differences such as gender, class, and location. Bridging anthropology and queer studies, this research will shed light on the intricate interconnections among geopolitical configurations, gendered national imaginaries, and lived precarity that shape local transgender livability.