Allow 'him' to be 'herself'

Liu Ting, in a ward at a plastic surgery hospital in Guangzhou, East China's Guangdong province, April 7. [Photo/CFP] Photo story

"I feel I have become complete after the operation", Liu Ting told the Beijing Times, looking at herself in a mirror and arranging her hair.

Liu became a woman after six months of transsexual operations in March, ending her 28-year struggle living in a man's body.

With white skin and shoulder-length hair, she wears a white dress as she sits in a ward full of feminine articles, from high heels and cosmetics to plush toys.

But for her fame few would know she was once a male who claimed many titles, including "national moral model", due to taking care of her ailing mother while completing studies in middle school and college.

For Liu, fame is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, she and her mother were funded by schools and the public after their story hit the media.

On the other, she kept her secret and disguised herself to be a "model man" to match the title given by a society, where the majority of conservatives still view transsexualism a taboo.

"I really hated masculine characteristics in myself since high school," Liu recalled.