From Fragmentation to Connection

In late 2024, a small group of researchers, translators, and community organizers found ourselves repeatedly encountering the same challenge: despite Chinese being one of the world’s most widely spoken languages, gender diversity resources in Chinese were strikingly absent from global conversations. While English-language discourse on gender diversity had developed robust vocabularies and theoretical frameworks, Chinese-speaking communities were developing their own unique terminology, cultural contexts, and identity expressions largely in isolation.

This absence wasn’t due to a lack of gender diversity discussions in Chinese-speaking contexts. On the contrary, vibrant communities were forming across social media platforms, developing rich cultural expressions and identity terms like Cross Dressing or Transform Subculture (CDTS), 伪娘 (“femboys”), 男娘 (“sissy”), MTX (male-to-X). These communities were creating art, literature, and theoretical frameworks that reflected their lived experiences within specific cultural contexts.

The problem was one of connection – these valuable perspectives remained largely inaccessible to non-Chinese speakers, while Chinese-speaking communities had limited access to global resources and conversations. Knowledge was developing in parallel paths without meaningful intersection.

Digital Commons for Gender Diversity

This recognition catalyzed our vision for GenderLibs: to create a digital commons where gender diversity knowledge could flow across linguistic and cultural boundaries. We envisioned a platform that would not merely translate content but would contextualize cultural nuances, preserve ephemeral digital discussions, and systematically organize dispersed knowledge into accessible structures.

Our approach became two-pronged: a digital library to collect, translate, and preserve significant documents, personal narratives, and research; and a knowledge wiki to systematically organize theoretical concepts, community cultural phenomena, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Together, these components would address both the preservation of existing knowledge and the generation of new understanding through connection and contextualization.

We partnered with the Trans Chinese Digital Library to expand our reach and deepen our resource base. Through this collaboration, we’ve been able to develop a more comprehensive collection spanning academic research, personal narratives, historical documents, and multimedia expressions of gender diversity.

Beyond Translation: Building Knowledge Networks

While translation is fundamental to our mission, GenderLibs aims to go beyond simple linguistic conversion. We’re developing dynamic knowledge mapping technologies that can trace conceptual evolution, identify connections between seemingly disparate ideas, and visualize how gender diversity discourses develop differently across cultural contexts.

Our wiki section employs AI-assisted categorization and open collaborative editing to transform fragmented community discussions, academic insights, and cultural phenomena into structured knowledge frameworks. This approach helps researchers track concept evolution, assists creators in finding cultural contexts, and offers the public multiple entry points for understanding gender diversity.

The intelligent semantic retrieval system we’re developing will enable cross-language content association and multimedia knowledge presentation. This three-dimensional knowledge network connects historical archives with contemporary digital expressions, weaving together a more complete picture of gender diversity across time and space.

Cultivating Cross-Cultural Understanding

At its heart, GenderLibs serves a deeper purpose beyond knowledge preservation. We believe that genuine progress in gender diversity recognition requires cross-cultural understanding and appreciation for the diversity within diversity. By highlighting how gender expressions and identities manifest differently across cultural contexts, we hope to challenge the notion of universal gender frameworks and foster deeper appreciation for culturally-specific expressions.

Our work in documenting Chinese terminology like CDTS, 伪娘, and MTX alongside their cultural contexts helps broaden global understanding of how gender diversity manifests within Chinese-speaking communities. Simultaneously, our translations of global resources into Chinese help connect local communities with broader conversations and resources.

Join Our Knowledge Commons

GenderLibs is fundamentally a collaborative project. We invite researchers, community members, translators, and allies to contribute to this growing knowledge commons. Whether through sharing personal narratives, contributing translations, participating in wiki editing, or simply engaging with the materials, every interaction helps strengthen the connections between communities.

We believe that knowledge should be accessible regardless of language or cultural background. Through continually expanding our collections, collaborating with other organizations, and encouraging community participation, we aim to create an evolving digital commons where diverse voices and ideas can interact, exchange, and blend.

Ultimately, the Sino-Global Gender Diversity Library is committed to ensuring that rich Chinese-language content on gender diversity is no longer limited by language or geography, but can reach the international stage, inspiring more people, connecting more resources, and contributing to understanding and cooperation across cultures and identities.

We invite you to explore, learn, and join this effort—only together can we expand our imagination and understanding of gender diversity.