BEIJING — What if “womanwomanwoman” were the English word for rape, defilement, adultery?

北京——如果英文中表示“强奸”(rape)、“亵渎”(defilement)、“通奸”(adultery)等意思的词是三个“女”字(womanwomanwoman)，那会怎样呢？

That is roughly how the Chinese character “jian,” or 姦, translates, as it is made up of three characters for “woman,” 女.

汉字“姦”的英文翻译大致就是这些，这个字由三个女组成。

(In mainland China, the character 姦 was simplified to 奸 after the 1949 Communist revolution as an aid to literacy, but the three-woman version is still standard in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities, and widely recognized on the mainland.)

（中国大陆1949年的共产党革命成功后，作为帮助提高识字率的一种辅助手段，“姦”被简化成“奸”了，但三个女的写法仍是香港、澳门、台湾，以及海外中国社区的标准，大陆人也大都认识这个写法。）

Troubled by the word’s gender associations, curators made it the symbol of an art exhibition that had been scheduled to open in Beijing on Nov. 25, the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

出于对这个字的性别关联的不安，一个艺术展的策展人把该字作为展览的主题，这个艺术展原定于11月25日的联合国国际消除对妇女和女童暴力日(International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women)在北京开幕。

The exhibition, “Jian, Rape: Gender Violence Cultural Codes,” was to have run until Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, signaling 16 days of global activism against gender violence with the hashtag #orangetheworld.

题为《姦：性别暴力伤害的文化符号》的艺术展原定要持续到12月10日的国际人权日(Human Rights Day)，是为期16天的抵制性别暴力全球行动的一部分，该行动在网上使用#orangetheworld井号标签。

The exhibition was canceled.

艺术展被取消了。

But curators, feminists and commentators say there is a pressing need for more awareness in China of the gender prejudices woven into the language.

但是，策展人、女权主义者与评论员说，仍有迫切必要让更多的中国人认识到语言中存在的性别偏见。

“Why did one woman become three, and such a symbol of political and moral imagination and an object of enmity in traditional Chinese society and political theory?” asked Tong Yujie, the academic convener of the canceled exhibition, in an essay prepared for the show.

佟玉洁是被取消的艺术展的学术召集人，她在为展览准备的文章中写道，“为什么由一个女人变成三个女人的字是具有如此政治和道德想象的符号，是中国传统社会和政治理论仇恨的对象？”

As evidence, Ms. Tong offered examples from ancient Chinese history and political texts:

佟玉洁提供了一些中国古代历史与政治典籍中的例子作为证据：

In the “Zuo Zhuan,” or “Commentary of Zuo,” dating from the fourth century B.C., “jian” is used to mean “evil”: “To cast away what is virtuous and give honor to what is evil is the greatest of calamities.”

在出自公元前四世纪的《左传》中，“姦”的意思是“邪恶”：“棄德崇姦，禍之大者也。”

In the “Guoyu,” or “Discourse of States,” from the same period, a “jian” is a traitor: “Rebels inside the country are scoundrels, while those outside the country are traitors.”

在同期的《国语》中，“姦”的意思是叛徒: “亂在內為宄，在外為姦。”

Gender is written into all languages, but it is especially striking in Chinese because of the visual nature of the language, said David Moser, a linguist and the academic director of CET Beijing Chinese Studies at Capital Normal University.

汉语言学专家、首都师范大学CET对外汉语学习项目的负责人莫大伟(David Moser)说，所有的语言中都写进了性别，但由于中文的视觉特性，它在中文中特别引人注目。

“In everyday language, how many Chinese speakers are aware that, in every set phrase with male-female gender reference, the male always comes first?” he said in an email.

“在日常语言中，有多少中国人能意识到，在每个成语的男女性别指涉上，男性总是排在前面的？”他在一封电邮中说。

“A married couple is 一对夫妇, a husband and wife. Your parents are your 父母, father and mother, never 母父, or mother and father. Even a phrase like 男女老少, meaning everyone, literally ‘men, women, old and young,’ subconsciously reinforces a supposedly ‘natural’ hierarchy — men over women, old over young,” Mr. Moser said.

“比如‘一对夫妇’是丈夫和妻子，‘父母’是妈妈和爸爸，人们从来不会说‘母父’。甚至像‘男女老少’这种意识是所有人的短语，也下意识地强化了所谓的‘自然’的等级结构——男在女之前，老在少之前，” 莫大伟说。

In Chinese, tradition weighs heavily, with a language capable of great beauty and subtlety also offering enduring discrimination.

中文很重视传统，这门可以极具美感与微妙的语言，也夹带着经久不衰的歧视。

“Reversing the order isn’t perceived as just a polarity flip in the interest of equality,” Mr. Moser said. “It would be simply perceived as ‘wrong,’ by most Chinese people.”

“如果把它们顺序反转，人们不觉得这仅仅是为了平等的缘故进行的倒装，”莫大伟说。“大多数中国人都会直接将其视为 ‘错误’。”