This article was featured in The Linguist 60(5), an international professional journal of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL).
I have been providing language services to academic researchers specialising in fields related to language, gender and sexuality, and have realised that making best efforts to inform ourselves of current usage and good practice is something that is important for us as linguists, and which we ought to do with humility. I enjoy comparing languages, and as someone whose first language is Cantonese, I find it fascinating how gender stereotypes and assumptions vary between Cantonese (or written Traditional Chinese) and English.
Against a backdrop of hegemonic masculinity in Hong Kong, it is interesting that words that have traditionally been gendered male in English have never had any gender connotations in Cantonese. While we have to be cautious when dealing with, for example, ‘manpower’ (‘staffing’), ‘man-made’ (‘artificial’) and ‘mankind’ (‘humankind’) in English, this has not been a problem in Cantonese. The ‘man’ in these terms is 人 (‘people’; jan): 人力 (lit. ‘people + force’; jan-lik), 人造 (lit. ‘people + to make’; jan-zou) and 人類 (lit. ‘people + kind’; jan-leoi).
Some outdated descriptive titles, for instance, ‘salesman’, ‘policeman’ and ‘fireman’, are also gender-neutral in Cantonese: 售貨員 (lit. ‘to sell + goods + member’; sau-fo-jyun), 警察 (lit. ‘to alert + to examine’; ging-caat) and 消防員 (lit. ‘to eliminate + to prevent + member’; siu-fong-jyun). This appears to have prevented associated reflection and reproduction of traditional gender roles. When it comes to the gendered word ‘guys’, as in ‘bad guys’, Cantonese uses 壞人 (lit. ‘bad + people’; waai-jan), or 各位 (‘everyone’, lit. ‘every + position’; gok-wai) for ‘guys’ as a generic term.
Given these examples, it may seem reasonable to conclude that Cantonese is a fairly inclusive language, but is it? Sadly, gender bias is able to show itself in myriad ways. To date, people who identify as non-binary or who are intersex are still excluded from the general discourse in Cantonese, which also features gendered pronouns, negative stereotypes and pernicious gender/sexuality-related assumptions.
I speak of ‘best efforts’ because I acknowledge the possibility that our own backgrounds and sociocultural experience may have considerable influence on the ways we see the world. Therefore avoiding the unconscious biases in the languages we use in professional and social settings can, at times, be difficult.
We all make mistakes and we grow by learning from them. Like language, which is alive and always changing, we, too, should constantly challenge our assumptions, renew our understanding, and reflect on our experience. I believe that it is part of our duty as linguists to help shift the paradigm, as we possess the linguistic power that is fundamental to making a real impact.
Gendered language that is rooted in our everyday life may be a sensitive subject to deal with, but if we start today by looking for inclusive alternatives when we speak and write, or even when we are working with our clients or teaching our students, I trust we can contribute to changing attitudes for the better.
Edison Tam MA MCIL CL is a Translator, Proofreader, and Copyeditor (zh-hk/en) who works with students, independent non-fiction writers, academic researchers, and clients from businesses and organisations of all sizes.
He is Chartered Linguist and Member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), and has undergone wide-ranging academic training in Business, Modern Languages, and Applied Linguistics in Hong Kong, London, and Barcelona.
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