'I don't want to let him down,' says Ms Chui, who in June last year had a male-to-female sex change.

Ms Chui says her boyfriend knows about her original sex and insists that he wants to marry her. However, the couple are at a loss as to how to get married in Hong Kong.

A transsexual is defined as a person who strongly identifies with the opposite gender and who chooses to live as a member of the opposite gender or to become one by surgery

Those who have had a sex change are allowed to record their new sex on their identity card, and Ms Chui's has been so altered.

Two identity cards are needed to register a couple's intention to get married in Hong Kong, but a birth certificate determines a person's legal gender, and there is no provision in the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance to amend the definition of a person's sex after surgery.

'Even though my identity card lists me as female, Hong Kong law does not consider me a female,' says Ms Chui.

'There is no provision for my marriage.'

The Immigration Department, which processes ID cards, uses a previous court decision as a guideline. That found that Hong Kong law did not recognise a marriage between two people who were the same gender at birth, even if one had undergone reassignment surgery.

The department stated that 'Hong Kong law will only recognise a marriage of a male and a female born as such'.

The department did not respond to a Sunday Morning Post question as to why an ID card is allowed to change but not a birth certificate.

Ms Chiu's problems extend to her bank accounts.

A long-time customer of HSBC before her sex change, Ms Chui requested a change of her gender status on her bank statements and accounts after the change of her gender on her identity card.

It has been a long process. 'It has taken nearly a year,' she says, and the change has not happened yet.

'I have to use a cheque book, but the name is still 'Mr' Chiu. My bank statements still say 'Mr'.

'I can't change my fund accounts as it is the MPF account of 'Mr' Chiu, but I am now 'Ms' Chiu.'

Therefore, like most of her friends in the transsexual population in Hong Kong, Ms Chiu has set up another bank account using her new identity card.

An HSBC spokeswoman said that the delay in Ms Chui's case involved technical reasons. Information changes involving gender status were processed immediately on request.

In Norway, banks will change a client's name and gender in their records immediately such a change is recorded in the national identity-registration system.