Tongzhi (term)

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Tongzhi
Hanyu Pinyin
tóngzhì
Gwoyeu RomatzyhTorng jyh
Wade–GilesTʻung chih
Tongyong Pinyintóngjhì

Tongzhi is a form of

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]

In party politics

It remains in use in a formal context among

2008 presidential election, Frank Hsieh said: 很多同志希望我能夠留到五月二十五日 'many comrades hoped that I could stay to May 25'.[3] In October 2016, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued a directive urging all 90 million party members to keep calling each other "comrades" instead of less egalitarian terms.[4][5]

Military use

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.)[6]

LGBTQ community use

Since the 1990s, the term is, however, increasingly being used to refer to

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.

Tongzhi is preferred over tongxinglian (

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 heteronormativity, as well as a means of signifying "politics beyond the homo-hetero duality" and "integrating the sexual into the social".[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Chou (2011), p. 2.
  2. ISBN 978-1-405-17581-4
    .
  3. ^ 凝聚黨內團結　謝長廷：我決定留到五二五 Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "学习时报" (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  5. ^ "'Comrade' survives China rules blitz". BBC News. 19 November 2014.
  6. ISBN 978-0-415-78322-4
    . 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.
  7. ^ Lixian, Holly Hou (30 November 2001). "LGBT Activism in Mainland China". Solidarity. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  8. S2CID 145325619
    .
  9. ISBN 978-9-027-20532-2
    . 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.

Further reading

External links

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