I got linked to this post claiming the “husband & wife” MDZS translation is incorrect & that the term is actually “gender-neutral”. It seems this is why some people are against calling WWX “wife”.

Here’s a thread on why I (as a Chinese) don’t agree. (1/8) https://hikari-reii.tumblr.com/post/187566262517/some-clarifications-on-husband-and-wife-the

Countering the claims in this post, one by one:

Point 1: 夫妻 means married couple. It is made up of the characters 夫 from 丈夫(husband) and 妻 from 妻子(wife). It is NOT a gender-neutral term—which I see is a popular take-away from foreign fans reading the post. It is (2/8)

also not the “only term available for their couple status”. If I, with my pea brain, can easily come up with LWJ saying “我们都已经是彼此的丈夫了”(we are now each other’s husbands) instead of using this gender-loaded “heteronormative” 夫妻 term, I don’t see why MXTX cannot. (3/8)

Which leads me to this next point.

Point 2: Would MXTX use this term 夫妻 intentionally? Yes. Yes, she would. I just finished reading SVSSS, so I have an example on hand here. She explicitly writes BingQiu calling each other “Husband (相公) and “Wife (娘子)”. (4/8) https://twitter.com/sweetlolixo/status/1300089719896682497

She is 100% into the danmei trope of husband/wife roles. This is a danmei novel. Her stories are littered with tropes. Is it problematic? Maybe to your western gaze. But to deny that she would use 夫妻, a gender-loaded term, to describe Wangxian’s relationship is, uh... (5/8)

Don’t kid yourself.

Point 3: The post claims LWJ “hesitated” to use the term 夫妻 to describe his and WWX’s relationship bc... for some reason he is intrinsically aware, in an ancient Chinese setting,that 夫妻 is a politically incorrect term to be used for 2 married males? (6/8)

Um... ok. When I first read MDZS I actually thought LWJ was hesitating bc he was shy/in love/still adjusting to the idea of being married to WWX to actually use the term 夫妻... not bc he was Big Brained and Westernised and Afraid Of Offending WWX by calling him his wife. (7/8)

Point 4: Funny the post mentions Incense Burner 2.0, bc in that chap LWJ pins WWX down as he fucks him, and very aggressively asks him “who is the husband(夫君)”. WWX tearily answers,“You, you are, you are the husband!” Tell me again LWJ doesn’t like the husband/wife trope? (8/8)

It’s worthy to add to this thread that modern China Chinese gay couples refer to themselves as husband and wife in private (see quoted tweet for first hand testimony) which *really* drives the point that hate against 夫妻 is very much a Western fixation on gender roles/terms. https://twitter.com/tanghuluwa/status/1300339697550610432

QRTing this into the thread because I want to show an example of the kind of “夫妻 is gender neutral” argument that keeps popping up bc people refuse to accept that it means “husband and wife”.... and that it’s ok. https://twitter.com/wangxianling/status/1300399868892999680