How gender specific in writing is the character 他

Question

A couple of years ago I wrote this comment below an answer:

On mainland China 他 is used for both male and female. I've only seen 她 used as a stylistic thing for advertising and some old formal writing.

Since I wrote that comment I have had a few people ask about whether or not this is true. When I think about it today I am not sure what my original thinking was and I am doubting myself over whether or not this is a true statement.

I haven't been back to China in 3 years (going in September, yay!) and I haven't picked up a newspaper in a while. What I do recall is seeing 她 used in social media (微信 posts) which has only become mainstream in the past few years.

Here is what Wikipedia says on the subject:

In 1917, the Old Chinese graph tā (她, from nǚ 女, "woman") was borrowed into the written language to specifically represent "she" by Liu Bannong. As a result, the old character tā (他), which previously also meant "she" in written texts, is sometimes restricted to meaning "he" only. In contrast to most Chinese characters coined to represent specifically male concepts, the character tā is formed with the ungendered character for person rén (人), rather than the character for male nán (男)."

So how correct is my original statement and has social media and the internet caused an increase in the use of 她?

Answer 1

In my experience, when referring to a single subject, I have never seen 他 used as a female pronoun. 她 is used for females, and 它 used for non-gendered or non-human subjects.

Do note that 他 has meanings outside pronouns; it can have the meaning of "other". In these cases, 他 is used and never 她. Examples include 他人 (other people), 他乡 (a place far away from home), 他日 (future).

There are two interesting cases for the 他/她 question though: in the group pronouns 他们/她们 and when the gender is unknown.

For 他们/她们, 他们 is indeed the gender-neutral term. Use this when referring to a group of people (other than yourself and your subject, i.e. "they" or "them"), where their genders are either mixed or not relevant. If you are specifically referring to a group of females though, use 她们. Here's some discussion on this matter. This is in contrast to English which has no gendered "they" or "them".

When gender is unknown, it is more proper to use 他. This is similar to older English style which considered generic he proper usage. Use 他 when in English you would have used "he / she". Note that some people use "他/她" which is perfectly understandable but less proper.

So to summarise:

• 他 is gender neutral, except in two cases where you would use 她 instead:
• When referring to a single female of known gender
• When referring to a group of females

Answer 2

As a matter of fact, (exactly as OP mentioned in the post), the character 她 has a history of fewer than like a hundred years. Therefore, it is actually kind of natural to use 他 when the person referred to is not so apparent. (Although not that politically-correct, phrases like his-or-her are rare in Chinese.)

By the way, in places other than mainland China, they differentiate 你／妳／祢、他／她／牠／它／祂。

Answer 3

As a local Chinese, I'd suggest @sotondolphin 's answer. Forget about the history usage, in my opinion, the key point is the target you would like to express to. For the modern Chinese people, "use 他 for male person, 她 for female person. 它 for animals both female and male." when you want to express a few people including both male and female, use 他们 as 'them'.

The stuff above fits for both written and oral Chinese.

Feel free to ask me anything about Chinese. I am glad to help you guys :)

Answer 4

for the third party, we always use 他 for male person, 她 for female person. 它 for animals both female and male.

but it's a little tricky when talking about "YOU", in mainland, we use 你 for both male and female, however you may encounter “女尔” mentioning "YOU" if you are female in tai wan and hong kong

Answer 5

Very interesting question. We use 他 for male, 她 for she male. But there are some tricky situations.

• When we do not know the gender, yes, we will use 他

• 她 means female, but it often suggest youngness and beauty. For example, simply write the character 她, most Chinese will picture a beautiful girl in their minds. That's probably the reason why so many poets and singers will use 她 in their poems and lyrics.

• We do not have a common picture for 他

Answer 6

just remember this and you won't make any mistakes.

他 = he 他的 = his

她 = she 她的 = her

它 = it 它的 = its

Answer 7

Just to mention that in recent few years (from 2018 I'd say), it's increasingly popular to use TA (the pinyin letters of 他/她) to mean either 他 or 她, in casual or online writing. This is similar to the usage of s/he or him/her in English. For example

大声告诉TA (say it loudly to him/her)

Formally, 他 is still used to refer to a single person of unknown gender, but watch this space.