Transgender Influencer Responds to Media Firestorm Over Pregnancy

Chiang Chia-wen (江嘉文), also known as Wang Yao (罔腰), is an Instagram personality who made headlines in 2017 for successfully changing the “gender” section of her National ID card after undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Chiang primarily creates lifestyle content that include herself and her partner on her Instagram account, while selling beauty products and other merchandise to a community of roughly 200,000 followers.

Though her being a transgender woman has always been known to the public, over this past weekend the focus of Taiwan was once again set on the twenty-nine year-old internet influencer, who implied that she was pregnant on Instagram.

On February 18th, Chiang posted two ultrasound photos images on her instagram in a post. In the first image, her partner embraces her as she holds an ultrasound image of a baby. In the second image, the same ultrasound image was pinned on an medical receipt originating from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital.

A firestorm over the issue quickly brewed. Internet users pointed to her being transgender, and asked how it was medically possible she was pregnant, given that she does not have a uterus. At the same time, medical bureaucrats in Taiwan were alarmed by the possibility that an illegal, unauthorized experimental procedure may have been performed.

According to Chiang and her partner, an “experimental treatment” was undertaken for her pregnancy. She has not responded or given any more details surrounding the medical circumstances of the pregnancy.

Given the lack of information, Taiwan’s Intersex, Transgender, and Transsexual People Care Association said that that there are no existing experimental treatment to enable people who have undergone gender reassignment surgery to be pregnant.

The association also pointed out the considerable difficulty for transgender people who have not undergone gender reassignment surgery to change their gender on official documents in Taiwan.

Reactions from the medical community

Doctors in Taiwan have pointed out that there are several possibilities that could enable her to be pregnant as a transgender woman. According to gynecologist Lee Yi-ping (李毅評), there are four possibilities for a biological male with XY chromosomes to be pregnant: an abdominal pregnancy in which an embryo is inserted into the abdominal cavity; a uterus transplant; a rare condition can result in a biological male person to also have some XX chromosomes, potentially resulting in the person carrying female organs; or a surrogate.

“No matter what it is, I offer my support and maximum blessing for any couple who is determined to have a kid,” Dr. Lee added after explaining the possibilities in context of Chiang’s case.

Other medical professionals were more skeptical. Dr. Yang Tsung-tsai (楊聰財), a psychologist at the Tri-Service General Hospital, said Chiang either has delusional disorder and is malingering, or is making sensational statements for publicity. Dr. Yang further suggests that Chiang begin taking medications for her “delusions.”

Ministry of Health and Welfare Department of Medical Affairs Chair Liu Yue-ping (劉越萍) calls Chiang’s pregnancy “bullshit” (鬼扯), citing the fact uterus transplants are not authorized in Taiwan, and that an abdominal pregnancy is potentially life threatening. Liu added that she is concerned that misinformation may be spread as a result of Chiang’s posts.

“It’s wrong to spread misinformation and illicitly appropriate the pains of many women and their families and lives for clickbait purposes,” writes gynecologist and former DPP Legislator Lin Chin-yi (林靜儀). Though Lin did preface by acknowledging the difficulty faced by members of the trans community who have taken gender-reassignment surgery.

“She just ate too much (她吃太飽了); pregnancy requires a uterus,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who was previously a physician, commented.

Amidst activism by medical professionals to contribute to the discourse, The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced it will investigate Chiang’s claims. and The Kaohsiung City Department of Health also threatened a fine of NT$50,000 to NT$250,000 dollars in possible violation of “medical advertising by a non-medical professional.”

Media firestorm

This sensational story and divergent attitudes between medical professionals towards the transgender community caught the attention of the media in Taiwan. When Chiang visited the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMU) on February 19th for a routine checkup, a crowd of reporters showed up to interview her.

“Reporters called me nonstop in the morning, asking if I am at a certain hospital,” Chiang told Ketagalan Media. “When I was paying my fees [at the end of my visit], I saw that many reporters were standing outside.”

She agreed to talk to an Ettoday reporter, but spoke on the condition of being off the record. “And then, when I got home, I saw recordings of my own voice all over the news,” she told Ketagalan Media.

Her off-the-record statement on why she was at the KMU hospital was recorded and published as an “exclusive” report by the network.

After the incident, Chiang decided that she would not respond to press requests any longer. “Hung up on all of them,” she said.

Following her visit, gynecologist Dr. Lung Chen-yu (龍震宇) at the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital’s Zhonghe Hospital said at a press conference that after a search of her medical records, there was no record of her seeing a gynecologist at the hospital.

Without the ability to reach out to Chiang and fact-check their claims, media reports in Taiwan turn to citing anonymous comments by internet users by the evening of February 19th.

An anonymized message posted in a closed Facebook group of nearly 700,000 users, attributable to a woman who claims to have experienced a life-threatening case of extra-uterine pregnancy, alleges that Chiang is merely trying to “gather attention.”

“I accept gays (同志) and third-gendered (第三性) friends, but that one called Wang Yao: precisely because people like you exist, a lot of people hate and push away [the transgender community],” the author wrote. “You’re the bad apple in the batch (害群之馬). Garbage (垃圾),” the post concludes.

The hateful message, though anonymously posted and emotionally charged, was cited and repeated by virtually all mandarin-language media in Taiwan. It was published by Apple Daily, SETN, Mirror Media, EBC News, UDN News, and Liberty Times.

Throughout the weekend, more reports of the sort surfaced. One allege that Chiang took her cisgender sister’s ultrasound images as her own. Another unverified claim says Chiang has made more than NTD $60,000 from merchandise sales since her announcement, implying that it was a publicity stunt. A third chain of unverified report allege that she in fact already had an abortion.

The three each had a few things in common. In each case, reporters acquired unverified screenshots of chat logs or Instagram stories posted by other anonymous users from closed Facebook groups.

Then, claims are directly published as facts by reporters who could not verify the authenticity of the images they acquire. The burden of dispelling any potential disinformation or doctored chat logs fell on Chiang herself, who communicates with the public solely through her social media updates after her previous encounter with a reporter.

When asked how the episode has affected her, she responded that the practices of the reporters have adversely affected her life.

“Journalists in Taiwan seem to just want to destroy the life of a transsexual, transgender person who wants to be themselves and live their dreams,” she told Ketagalan media. “The media intentionally magnified [my situation] and chased relentlessly after me; even going after my family,” she added, referring to the first of the three aforementioned reports.

“I just want to be like a normal girl, and look forward to the birth of my baby every day,” she said. “No matter how the baby comes, in about 7-8 months, he/she is a little life that I look forward to.”

Despite feeling invalidated, she told Ketagalan Media that she will accept the request to clarify her Instagram post to Kaohsiung City Department of Health officials.

An earlier version of this article used the term “trans-identifying,” which may suggest transgender people’s genders are merely imagined. While that was not the intention, we have changed the terminology accordingly.

(Feature image courtesy of Chiang Chia-wen)