THE COMPASSIONATE WAY: Towards Trans and Non-Binary Inclusive Narratives in Museums

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THE COMPASSIONATE WAY
Towards Trans and Non-Binary Inclusive Narratives in Museums
Dan Vo
ABSTRACT
Often associated with compassion and mercy, Avalokiteshvara
Guanyin is a figure that can possess masculine and feminine
attributes, as well as exist in a space both between and beyond
genders. The successful dissemination of the bodhisattva among
communities has always involved metamorphoses and the being
can also provide a new, and yet also very ancient, perspective
on transgender and non-binary narratives in a museum context.
There is a special opportunity for collections to adopt inclusive
practice and use this figure as a way to connect with transgender
and non-binary people
ABSTRAKTI
Avalokiteshvara Guanyin, joka yhdistetään usein myötätuntoon ja
armollisuuteen, voi ilmentyä niin maskuliinisena kuin feminiinise-
näkin hahmona ja ottaa paikkansa niin sukupuolten välissä kuin
niiden tuolla puolenkin. Tämän muuntautumiskykyisen valaistuneen
olennon tuleminen osaksi eri yhteisöjä voi tarjota museoille uuden,
mutta samalla myös muinaisen näkökulman trans- ja muunsuku-
puolisiin narratiivihin. Näin se tarjoaa kokoelmille erityisen mah-
dollisuuden mukaan ottaviin käytäntöihin ja tavan luoda yhteyden
trans- ja muunsukupuolisiin henkilöihin.
As I gazed up at the serene
face, with heavily lidded
eyes, without even looking
at the label I knew who
I was in the presence of.
Wearing a five-pointed
crown, delicately paerned
robes, and holding up their
right hand with incredibly
well-detailed ngertips in
a noble gesture, I could
see the fifteenth century
sculpture retained just
enough flecks of bronze
gilding to suggest how
glorious it may once have
been as a sacred object of
reverence in a Buddhist
temple in the Wutai
Mountains of Shanxi in
China. [Fig. 1.]
Fig 1. Avalokiteshvara Guanyin (15th century China) at
Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd National Museum
Cardiff. Photo: Dan Vo.

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Standing in a sumptuously red-painted gallery in Amgueddfa Genedlaethol
Caerdydd National Museum Cardi, the gure of Avalokiteshvara Guanyin,
the Buddhist bodhisava associated with mercy and compassion, has been
an unexpected connection in my ongoing work in developing LGBTQ+
tours in Cardi, with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. It was unexpected, because despite
being very familiar with the icon throughout much of my childhood, there
were aspects of the story which were not known to me until more recently.
Growing up I was aware of the deity as a favourite of the hundreds of
thousands of grateful refugee Vietnamese ‘boat people’ who had traversed
watery horizons in search of a new home. Called Quan Am in Vietnamese,
it was believed the being provided devotees safe passage from the perils of
the sea, and the icon was oen seen in local temples and domestic altars.
It wasn’t until 2016 in the booklet Out In Oxford, which presented a trail
of LGBTQ+ treasures across the University of Oxford’s collections, that
the potential for Avalokiteshvara Guanyin to provide a new, and yet also
very ancient, perspective on transgender and non-binary narratives in
a museum context was revealed to me. G R Mills described the seated
gure of the bodhisava in the Ashmolean Museum as an icon that was
in a “transitional phase in the transformation of the male form of the
bodhisava Avalokiteshvara into the Chinese female deity Guanyin”
(Ashmolean Museum. https://www.glam.ox.ac.uk/out-in-oxford-
ashmolean-museum). is referred to the centuries-long trek that the gure
took, initially from the rst century in India as Avalokiteshvara, crossing the
Himalayas and arriving in China by the third century (Bailey 2009). During
their journey the deity became “increasingly androgynous, incorporating
both male and female characteristics”. By the twelh century in China the
icon was almost entirely represented as the familiarly white robed Guanyin,
the “one who hears the cries of the world” (Ashmolean Museum. hps://
www.glam.ox.ac.uk/out-in-oxford-ashmolean-museum). As the gure
moved further east into Korea, Japan and Vietnam, it also metamorphosed
in ways that allowed the icon to t within the needs of the receiving people:
the successful dissemination of the bodhisava into new communities
required localisation and multiple transformations. e deity evolved into
whatever form devotees needed most, and in museums today depictions
might be called Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin, but may also be given the
composite name Avalokiteshvara Guanyin.
In various places the gender uidity was interpreted in dierent ways. For
example, in the Vietnamese musical theatre Hat Cheo tradition, a morality
tale dating from around the tenth century explains how an individual who
bore much suering throughout their life with boundless compassion
became Quan Am i Kinh, the embodiment of Avalokiteshvara (Pham
2014). e play begins with i Kinh as a terribly wronged wife, who
wanted to escape into a life of prayer, but could not because at the time
it was considered the sole province of men. i Kinh assumed a male
identity and became a monk, yet later in the story they are falsely accused
of fathering a child with a local young woman. Even though their innocence
could be proven through a biological defense, i Kinh maintains their
male identity and instead accepts responsibility (Dharma Talk: Liberating
Our Hearts - Practicing with the Paramita of Inclusiveness. #29 Summer
2001. hps://www.mindfulnessbell.org/archive/2015/12/dharma-talk-
liberating-our-hearts-practicing-with-the-paramita-of-inclusiveness-2).
With this old folktale of i Kinh, we have an ancient tale which seems to
dely distinguish between gender roles and biological sex, while having
a protagonist that challenges gender norms. Given the era in which the
tale became popular, it is tantalising to consider the implications for the
ancient audience. [Fig. 2.]
It is perhaps easier to assess the impact of such a story on contemporary
transgender and non-binary people. I try to be careful when using pronouns

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to describe Guanyin, and I know I am not the only one to agonise over what might otherwise
seem like a casual use of ‘he / him / his’ or ‘she / her / hers’. In the T.T. Tsui gallery at the
V&A, which exhibits Chinese objects from the museum’s vast collection, there are quite a few
representations of Avalokiteshvara Guanyin. In one particular cabinet, the label for a grand
sculpture with faded paint, dated between the fourteenth and sixteenth, explains, “she stands
upright on a lotus” (Guanyin. Victoria & Albert collections. hp://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/
O493331/guanyin-gure-of-guanyin-unknown/). In an adjacent cabinet, there is a magnicent
seated gure which, like the aforementioned one in Cardi, also hails from Shanxi Province
in China. is one is older, though, dating to around the thirteenth century. e bodhisava
adopts a position of calm repose called “royal ease”, with the right knee bent and the right arm
resting on it. e accompanying label uses the pronoun “he”, though the online description
does also include a reference to nely carved “faintly feminine features” (Guanyin. Victoria &
Albert collections. hp://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O72412/guanyin-gure-of-guanyin-
unknown/). [Fig. 3.]
On LGBTQ+ tours when I take people to these two sacred gures, I ask visitors to look carefully
at the faces, the poses, the gestures, the slightly varied forms of dress. I ask them, “what do you
think is masculine or feminine? At what stage of transition or androgenisation do you feel the
gure is at?” Aer a short pause for reection I then add, “as you consider these visual references,
also ask yourself if it at all maers? Perhaps we should instead ask how you feel in their presence.”
Indeed, gender is said by some to be unimportant in aaining enlightenment, and aempting to
hold onto binary positions may be unhelpful on such a journey. For me it also recalls a distant
childhood memory, from when I was too young to understand the nuances of adult discussion
and I overheard family members appraising the feminine and masculine aributes of the wood
carved bodhisava that lived on our family altar, ultimately with no resolution or judgement
made. I believe this links with what author AKE at the Ashmolean Museum said on the maer,
“in Mahayana Buddhism, physicality of gender is considered a delusion of the unenlightened”.
Indeed, a person of any gender may achieve enlightenment (Chennery 2015). When examining
images of Avalokiteshvara Guanyin it may be therefore a folly to weigh up its maleness or
femaleness, instead it may be more useful to consider the gure’s “transcendence beyond gender”
(Ashmolean Museum. hps://www.glam.ox.ac.uk/out-in-oxford-ashmolean-museum).
Fig 2. Female Guanyin (around 14–15th century China) at V&A.
Fig 3. Male Guanyin (13th century China) at V&A. Photos: Dan Vo.

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It is Avalokiteshvara Guanyin’s unseled gender uidity that has led
to an increased interest in the icon’s role among transgender and non-
binary communities. As a gure that can possess masculine and feminine
aributes, as well as exist in a space both between and beyond genders,
there is a logic to the association between Avalokiteshvara Guanyin and
those who have a gender identity that is not that the sex assigned to them
at birth, as well as those who identify as genderqueer, non-binary, agender,
or somewhere along or even outside of the gender spectrum (Human
Rights Campaign: Understanding the Transgender Community. hps://
www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community).
Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at Western Michigan University,
Cathryn Bailey, in her weighty treatise Embracing the Icon: e Feminist
Potential of the Trans Bodhisava, described Avalokiteshvara Guanyin’s
shiing gender and the way in which the gure “slips past male / female
binary” as something that “startles, intrigues, and comforts, depending
on one’s circumstances” (Bailey 2009). In a museum context this icon of
compassion also provides an opportunity for engagement with the diverse
transgender and non-binary communities. [Fig. 4.]
For Laura Bauld, Project Curator at the Burrell Collection, the exploration
of the transgender and non-binary narrative of the deity has allowed
“inclusion through integration” (Bauld 2018). Prioritising the telling of the
oen hidden or underappreciated LGBTQ+ history of museum objects,
through an ongoing collaborative partnership with Glasgow’s LGBT
Health and Wellbeing’s T-Time group, trans and non-binary individuals
have helped guide the museum’s interpretation and reinforced the notion of
Avalokiteshvara Guanyin, through their eyes, as a “transgender icon” (Bauld
2018). ere is meaningful power behind Bauld’s method of including
oen marginalised voices and raising them up to a level equal to that of the
museum curator. Bailey put it succinctly, by saying, “part of what it means
for a people to construct an identity is to construct a history, some sort of
Fig 4. Avalokiteshvara (14th century Nepal) at V&A. Photo: Dan Vo.

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cultural memory, the inclusion of a gure like (Avalokiteshvara Guanyin)
as trans icon is especially important” (Bauld 2018).
It is clear that transgender and non-binary people are included in some
of the most vulnerable and at risk minority groups. In this context, it
might be said that museum activities that support and engage with
transgender and non-binary communities have real urgency. Museums
have a responsibility in shaping community and culture, and challenging
intolerance and prejudice (Museums Association: Museum Manifesto
for Tolerance and Inclusion. https://www.museumsassociation.org/
download?id=1214164).
Recently, my work with the volunteer team of guides who lead the LGBTQ+
Tour at the V&A has led to an adoption of a values-led approach to training
and recruitment, as well as the reinforcement of our armative practices
to be more inclusive. We make it clear we proudly support transgender and
non-binary people. At the start of each meeting we acknowledge that we
have marginalised voices missing from the table, and commit ourselves to
making it possible for them to join. is may include people of colour, those
from working class backgrounds, disabled people, as well as people from a
diversity of religious and cultural beliefs. While we do have transgender and
non-binary colleagues, we would always encourage more to join. [Fig. 5.]
Having a more diverse team means the objects that we interpret and
present will be more varied, and we would therefore beer represent our
audience. It is a sensible approach in our goal to show the existence of
LGBTQ+ people throughout time, place and culture. Furthermore, as
museum workers, in taking this stance, it is not just a fullment of our
public duty to uphold the tenets of the Equality Act 2010, which provides
a range of legal protections to transgender people in the UK, but also a true
act of human compassion. Much of my own values-led work has stemmed
from a long standing relationship with LGBT+ History Month. Initiated
in the UK in 2015 by Sue Sanders and Paul Patrick, each year museums
around the country mark February with relevant LGBTQ+ themed public
programming (Barr 2019). Since 2015 I have been involved initially as
a volunteer, then also as a lecturer, and more recently as a patron. In a
museum context I develop LGBTQ+ tours and programming: Amgueddfa
Genedlaethol Caerdydd National Museum Cardi, Gunnersbury Park
Museum, National Gallery, Imperial War Museum, Queer Britain, Tate
Britain, University of Cambridge Museums, and others. It is at the heart of
my work as the project leader for the UK Queer Heritage and Collections
Network founded by English Heritage, Historic England, Historic Royal
Palaces, the National Trust and the Research Centre for Museums and
Galleries at the University of Leicester. [Fig. 6.]
Fig 5. Guanyin (14th century China) at Fitzwilliam Museum. Photo: Dan Vo.

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In 2020 for International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31
Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd National Museum Cardi posted a
video with an image of the Avalokiteshvara Guanyin from the collection
with the statement, “Avalokiteshvara Guanyin helps explain the diverse
understanding of gender and sexuality many ancient communities had”
(Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd National Museum Cardi. 2020.
“Today is Trans Visibility Day”. Twier, March 31, 2020. hps://twier.
com/Museum_Cardi/status/1244995159709843457?s=20). Indeed,
for transgender activist Pauline Park, Avalokiteshvara Guanyin is part of a
long roll call of Asian mythological and legendary narratives that involves
the sexual transformation of individuals she calls “proto-transgenderal”:
those who may be considered transgender centuries before the term was
used (Park 2011). It can be suggested such narratives were suppressed,
obscured or obliterated following the period of colonial contact and
still even potentially dicult in a supposedly post-colonial world. Yet,
the act of decolonisation in a museum context is now a possibility, and
the understanding and sharing of stories of difference and diversity,
alongside stories of unity and inclusion is essential. For our transgender
and non-binary visitors coming to see Avolokiteshvara Guanyin, as Park
so eloquently puts it, “it is ing that mercy should be the province of
transgendered people, because of the power of the tranformation teaches
compassion to the transformed” (Park 2013).
References
Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd National Museum Cardi. 2020. “Today
is Trans Visibility Day”. Twitter, March 31, 2020. https://twitter.com/
Museum_Cardi/status/1244995159709843457?s=20
Ashmolean Museum. https://www.glam.ox.ac.uk/out-in-oxford-ashmolean-
museum
Bailey, Cathryn. 2009. Embracing the Icon: The Feminist Potential of the Trans
Bodhisattva, Kuan Yin. Hypatia, a special issue Transgender Studies
and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gendered Realities, 24:3, 178–196.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20618170?seq=1
Barr, Sabrina. 2019. “LGBT History Month” Independent, February 7, 2019.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/lgbt-history-month-uk-
when-february-lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer-community-
celebration-a8755966.html
Bauld, Laura. Email to author, 13 July, 2018.
Chennery, Carolynn. 2015. Destroying the Binary: Transgenderism in
Buddhism. RELIG ST 4H03. https://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1045&context=rsso
Fig 6. Guanyin (17th century China) beside Meeting by Su Xianzhong (2018) at V&A. Photo: Dan Vo.

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Dharma Talk: Liberating Our Hearts - Practicing with the Paramita of
Inclusiveness. #29 Summer 2001. https://www.mindfulnessbell.org/
archive/2015/12/dharma-talk-liberating-our-hearts-practicing-with-the-
paramita-of-inclusiveness-2
Guanyin. Victoria & Albert collections. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/
O493331/guanyin-gure-of-guanyin-unknown/
Guanyin. Victoria & Albert collections. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/
O72412/guanyin-gure-of-guanyin-unknown/
Human Rights Campaign: Understanding the Transgender Community. https://
www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community
Museums Association: Museum Manifesto for Tolerance and Inclusion. https://
www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1214164
Park, Pauline. 2011. Proto-transgenderal Homoerotic Traditions in Asia and
the Pacic. Pacic School of Religion. https://paulinepark.com/proto-
transgenderal-homoerotic-traditions-in-asia-the-pacic/
Park, Pauline. 2013. Transgender Identities and Spiritual Traditions in Asia and the
Pacic: Lessons for LGBT/Queer APIs. Pacic School of Religion. https://
paulinepark.com/transgender-identities-spiritual-traditions-in-asia-the-
pacic-lessons-for-lgbtqueer-apis-pacic-school-of-religion-4-2-13/
Pham, PQ. 2014. The Tale of Lady Thi Kinh – Programme. Indiana: Indiana
University Jacobs School of Music.