Tongzhi | |||||||||||||||
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Chinese | 同志 | ||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | 'same will', 'same purpose', 'comrade' | ||||||||||||||
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Tongzhi is a form of style used in China that taken on different meanings in the 20th century depending on context. It was first introduced into vernacular Chinese by Sun Yat-sen as a way of describing his followers. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC),tongzhi was used to mean "comrade" in a communist sense:it was used to address almost everyone,male and female,young and old. In recent years,however,this meaning of the term has fallen out of common usage,except within Chinese Communist Party (CCP) discourse and among people of older generations. [1]
In contemporary Taiwan,Macau,and Hong Kong,the term mainly refers to LGBT people instead of the traditional political usage. [2]
It remains in use in a formal context among political parties in both mainland China and Taiwan. Within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),categorizing a person as a comrade is especially significant for a person who has been denounced or demoted,because it indicates that the party has not completely rejected the person as "one of its own". In Taiwan,the term also remains in formal usage in party politics. For example,after losing the 2008 presidential election,Frank Hsieh said:"many comrades hoped that I could stay till May 25" (很多同志希望我能夠留到五月二十五日). [3]
In October 2014,the CCP reiterated the necessity of its members using "comrade" to refer to one another. [4] [5] Earlier in May,the party's disciplinary committee in Guangdong province had banned its members from addressing one another as "boss","buddy",or "bro". The committee reasoned that these terms are known to be used in private enterprises or mafia circles,and thus are "influences of bureaucratism and sectarianism" which "blemish[es] the party and government's image". [5] [6]
The word comrade is in the regulations of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as one of three appropriate ways to formally address another member of the military ("comrade" plus rank or position,as in "Comrade Colonel",or simply "comrade" when lacking information about the person's rank,or talking to several people.) [7]
Since the 1990s,the term is increasingly being used to refer to sexual minorities in Macau,Hong Kong,mainland China,and Taiwan. [8] [9] This use of the term was first adopted by Michael Lam,a columnist for the Hong Kong-based City Magazine ,and was popularized by the inaugural Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1989,whose aim was to present same-sex relationships as positive and suggesting solidarity between LGBT people,while also providing an indigenous term to describe same-sex love.
In LGBT communities,Tongzhi is preferred over tongxinglian ( 同 性 戀 ),the formal word for homosexuality,as the latter is seen as overly clinical and pathological in its connotations. [10] The use of tongzhi over tongxinglian roughly parallels the use of "gay" over "homosexual" in English-language discourse.[ citation needed ]
Although the term initially referred to gay (男同志,'male tongzhi') and lesbian (女同志,'female tongzhi') people,in recent years its scope has gradually expanded to cover a wider spectrum of identities,analogous to "LGBTQ+". For example,Taiwan Pride can be translated literally as "Taiwan tongzhi parade". According to Chou Wah-shan,tongzhi is a fluid term that can refer to any person who is not heteronormative,as well as a means of signifying "politics beyond the homo-hetero duality" and "integrating the sexual into the social". [1]
"Mainland China",also referred to as "the Chinese mainland",is a geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addition to the geographical mainland,the geopolitical sense of the term includes islands such as Hainan,Chongming,and Zhoushan. By convention,territories outside of mainland China include:
Chinese unification,also known as Cross-Strait unification or Chinese reunification,is the potential unification of territories currently controlled,or claimed,by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China ("Taiwan") under one political entity,possibly the formation of a political union between the two republics. Together with full Taiwan independence,unification is one of the main proposals to address questions on the political status of Taiwan,which is a central focus of Cross-Strait relations.
Homosexuality has been documented in China since ancient times. According to one study by Bret Hinsch,for some time after the fall of the Han dynasty,homosexuality was widely accepted in China but this has been disputed. Several early Chinese emperors are speculated to have had homosexual relationships accompanied by heterosexual ones.
Lan Yu is a 2001 gay-themed Hong Kong-Mainland Chinese film set in Beijing by Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan.
In political contexts,comrade means a fellow party member,usually left-wing. The political use was inspired by the French Revolution,after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers. Since the Russian Revolution,popular culture in the West has often associated it with communism. As such,it can be used as a derogatory reference to left-wingers,akin to "commie". In particular,the Russian word товарищ may be used as derogatory reference to Communists.
Transgender is an overarching term to describe persons whose gender identity/expression differs from what is typically associated with the gender they were assigned at birth. Since "transgender studies" was institutionalized as an academic discipline in the 1990s,it is difficult to apply transgender to Chinese culture in a historical context. There were no transgender groups or communities in Hong Kong until after the turn of the century. Today they are still known as a "sexual minority" in China.
Taiwanese nationalism is a nationalist ideology asserting that the Taiwanese people are a nation and Taiwan is a sovereign country. Due to the political status of Taiwan and Han origin of most Taiwanese today,it is strongly linked to the Taiwan independence movement in promoting de-Sinicization to seek a national identity separate from China.
Profanity in Mandarin Chinese most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the object's ancestors,especially their mother. Other Mandarin insults accuse people of not being human. Compared to English,scatological and blasphemous references are less often used. In this article,unless otherwise noted,the traditional character will follow its simplified form if it is different.
Taiwan Pride is the annual LGBTQ pride parade in Taiwan. The parade was first held in 2003. Although joined by groups from all over the country,the primary location has always been the capital city of Taipei. The parade held in October 2019 attracted more than 200,000 participants,making it the largest gay pride event in East Asia. As of 2019,it is the largest in Asia ahead of Tel Aviv Pride in Israel,which is the largest in the Middle East. Taiwan LGBT Pride Community,the organizer of Taiwan LGBTQ Pride Parade,holds the parade on the last Saturday of October.
In Chinese-speaking societies around the world,an honorific title is attached after the family name of an individual when addressing that person. Aside from addressing colleagues or family of equal or lesser rank,it is considered impolite to refer to others by their name only.
Lesbian,gay,bisexual,and transgender (LGBTQ) people in Hong Kong may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents.
The united front in Taiwan is an aspect of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Government of China's larger united front strategy,applied to Taiwan,to achieve unification. It relies on the presence of pro-Beijing sympathizers in Taiwan combined with a carrot-and-stick approach of threatening war with Taiwan while offering opportunities for business and cultural exchanges. According to officials of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council,the CCP has long relied on organized crime as part of its united front tactics in Taiwan. Critics who are negative of Chinese unification have linked the term "united front" to Chinese imperialism and expansionism.
Tongqi are Chinese women who have married gay men. Similarly,tongfu is the corresponding neologism for Chinese men who have married lesbian women. Liu Dalin,among the first sexologists in mainland China,estimated that 90% of gay men in China marry a heterosexual woman. By comparison,15–20% of gay men married women in the United States as of 2010. Sexologist and sociologist Li Yinhe believes there are 20 million male homosexuals in China,of whom 80% marry women.
Xiandai Hanyu Cidian,also known as A Dictionary of Current Chinese or Contemporary Chinese Dictionary,is an important one-volume dictionary of Standard Mandarin Chinese published by the Commercial Press,now into its 7th (2016) edition. It was originally edited by LüShuxiang and Ding Shengshu as a reference work on modern Standard Mandarin Chinese. Compilation started in 1958 and trial editions were issued in 1960 and 1965,with a number of copies printed in 1973 for internal circulation and comments,but due to the Cultural Revolution the final draft was not completed until the end of 1977,and the first formal edition was not published until December 1978. It was the first People's Republic of China dictionary to be arranged according to Hanyu Pinyin,the phonetic standard for Standard Mandarin Chinese,with explanatory notes in simplified Chinese. The subsequent second through seventh editions were respectively published in 1983,1996,2002,2005,2012 and 2016.
The Hong Kong Pride Parade is an annual march in Hong Kong in support of LGBT rights. Homosexuality has been legal in Hong Kong since 1991 but there is no legal recognition of any same-sex relationships and limited protection against discrimination.
The major religions in Taiwan are Buddhism and Taoism. In these religions,the beliefs present no arguable issues about LGBTQ people. There are no laws about punishing sodomy,which means a sexual relationship between males is not considered an abomination,unlike in many western and Abrahamic religions. However,it was long considered a taboo issue. When human rights issues were discussed in political arenas,the concept of Tongzhi became a key term among the politicians in Taiwan. When it emerged in political forums,Taiwanese people began to become familiar with the idea that Tongzhi people being a part of their culture. Yet still,LGBTQ people were not mentioned in Taiwanese law. Punishment for being part of the LGBTQ community did not exist,yet there was also not any welfare or protection for LGBTQ people.
Despite the history of colonisation and the resulting process of Westernisation since 1842,Hong Kong still embodies many aspects of Chinese traditional values towards sexuality. It is traditionally believed that heterosexuality is the nature,coherent,and privileged sexuality. Popular media marginalises and discriminates against LGBT members of Hong Kong in an attempt to maintain "traditional lifestyles".
The Hong Kong Lesbian &Gay Film Festival is an annual international film festival focused on LGBTQIA+ cinema,held each September in Hong Kong. Founded in 1989 by Edward Lam (林奕華),a Hong Kong film director and gay activist,it is considered to be the oldest LGBT film festival in Asia.
Lala is a non-derogatory Chinese slang term for lesbian,or a same-sex desiring woman. It is used primarily by the LGBT+ community in Mainland China. Beginning in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries,lala communities started to form in urban areas of China,such as Beijing and Shanghai,using bars and online chatrooms to connect.
Tongzhi literature is a form of LGBT literature originating in Taiwan,with influences from mainland China,Hong Kong,and Chinese-speaking diaspora communities in countries such as Malaysia. Tongzhi is a term that formerly carried political connotations,but now is used among younger generations to refer to LGBT or queer people.
According to regulations, members of the PLA address each other: (1) by their duty position, or (2) by their position plus surname, or (3) by their position plus the title "comrade" (tongzhi). When the duty position of the other person is not known, one service member may address the other by military rank plus the word "comrade" or only as comrade.
While tóngxìnglìan may be perceived as a clinical term with pathological connotations, tóng zhì presents a more colloquial and euphemistic way of communicating the same meaning.