The reappropriation of Tongzhi A general address term in Communist China, the Chinese word tongzhi ‘comrade’ was appropriated by gay rights activists in.

Presentation on theme: "The reappropriation of Tongzhi A general address term in Communist China, the Chinese word tongzhi ‘comrade’ was appropriated by gay rights activists in."— Presentation transcript:

1 The reappropriation of Tongzhi A general address term in Communist China, the Chinese word tongzhi ‘comrade’ was appropriated by gay rights activists in Hong Kong to refer to members of sexual minorities. It has positive connotations of respect, equality, and resistance.

2 The reappropriation of tongzhi Andrew Wong Language in Society 34, 763–793.

3 The reappropriation of Tongzhi This article focuses on the reappropriation of this word by a mainstream newspaper in Hong Kong. The parodic use of tongzhi allow journalists to ridicule gay rights activists so as to increase the entertainment value of news stories. At the same time, it mocks activists’ demand for equality and may lead to the perjoration of the term.

4 The reappropriation of Tongzhi This study provides synchronic evidence for sociolinguistic accounts that explain how lexical items may undergo perjoration because of the context of their use. It shows that because the meaning potential of a word is not bounded by the intentions of its users, words that marginalized groups have appropriated can be resignified yet again in hateful contexts.

5 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi A general address term in Communist China, tongzhi (often glossed ‘comrade’) has become disfavored owing to its original political connotations (Fang & Heng 1983). Nevertheless, it was appropriated by tongzhi activists in the late 1980s as a reference term for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transsexuals, and transgendered persons, and it has positive connotations of respect, equality, and resistance (Wong & Zhang 2000). Thus, for many activists, the adoption of tongzhi by mainstream newspapers is a cause for rejoicing.

6 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi methodology Is the widespread use of tongzhi in mainstream newspapers testimony to the of activists engaged in the sexuality-based social movement in Hong Kong? Taking this question as its point of departure, this study examines the struggle over the meaning of tongzhi. The analysis is based on all 126 articles about lesbians, gay men, and0or other sexual minorities published between November 1998 and December 2000 in ODN (Oriental Daily News).

7 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi (data collection) These articles were found in three sections of the newspaper: local news, international news, and news from Taiwan and mainland China. I decided to focus on these three sections because it is there that the putative objectivity of news reporting is often underscored. In contrast, it is more acceptable for journalists to express their personal opinions in other sections (e.g., the entertainment section) and in other types of articles (e.g., social commentaries and editorials).

8 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi the argument I argue that the widespread use of tongzhi does not indicate that the attitude of ODN toward sexual minorities has become more positive than before. While the term tung-sing-lyun je ‘homosexual’ is often found in medical and legal news, tongzhi is mostly used to refer to lesbians and gay men in highly sensationalized news stories about murder, fist fights, gay sex clubs, and domestic disputes of gay and lesbian couples. Through the parodic use of tongzhi in these articles, ODN editors and journalists reappropriate the term and deny its link to activists. Similar to the strategic use of quotation marks, direct quotation, colorful language, and details tangential to the reported event, the use of tongzhi is one of the strategies adopted by editors and journalists to make fun of activists and others with same-sex desire, so as to increase the entertainment value of the news story. At the same time, it mocks tongzhi activists’ demand for respect and equality, and it sows the seeds for the pejoration of the term.

9 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi Struggles over meaning The (re)appropriation of tongzhi is reminiscent of the struggles to control the meaning of words like nigger and queer in the United States. The N-word is perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in the English language. However, many have pointed out that its use is not necessarily racist, nor does its use by African Americans reflect self-hate. In fact, African Americans use the N-word for a myriad of functions – for instance, to mean ‘male’ without any evaluative implications (Spears 1998:239), to refer to a person who acts inappropriately (Smitherman 1977:62), and to identify themselves as real, authentic, and unassimilated (Kennedy 2002:49). Most pertinent to the present study is the use of the N-word “as a rhetorical boomerang against racists” (Kennedy 2002:36).

10 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi In his study of interracial friendships among adolescents in south London, Hewitt 1986 found that some Black teens would tease their white friends as “nigger” and the white teens would in turn respond with “honky” or “snowflake.” “This practice,” Hewitt (1986:238) claims, “turns racism into a kind of effigy to be burned up in an interactive ritual which seeks to acknowledge and deal with its undeniable presence whilst acting out the negation of its effects.”

11 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi The discursive history of Tongzhi Originating some 2200 years ago in the early Qin Dynasty, it was initially defined as “pertaining to people who have the same ethics and ideals.” Its association with political discourse began to strengthen when it was used in the will of Dr. Sun Yat- Sen, in which he called on his followers to carry on the revolution: Geming shangwei chenggong, tongzhi rengxu nuli! ‘As the revolution is not yet completed, all my followers must endeavor to carry it out!’ Tongzhi in Sun’s will means ‘followers’ (Fang & Heng 1983).

12 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi During the Communist Revolution (1921–1949) the term acquired stronger political and revolutionist connotations, and its use as an address term instead of a term of reference became more popular. The reciprocal use of the term at that time signaled solidarity, equality, respect, and intimacy among the revolutionaries. It was an honorific address term reserved for Chinese Communist Party members and other revolutionaries who shared the same goals: to overthrow the old social system (represented by the Nationalist government) and to build a new China ruled by the people. At that time, being addressed as tongzhi required the addressee’s admission into the party or demonstration of one’s commitment to the Communist Revolution.

13 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi The connotations of tongzhi underwent tremendous changes after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The party made great efforts to promote the use of tongzhi as a new address term among the masses to replace terms that signal differences in social status and class – e.g., xiaojie ‘miss’ (an unmarried woman of the privileged class) and laoye ‘master’ (the head of the family in the privileged class). Extension of the use of tongzhi from members of the Revolutionary Army to the general public was a strategy of the Communist Party to establish an ideology of egalitarianism (Scotton & Zhu 1983). After the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), tongzhi became even more widely used.

14 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi In the last two decades, with mainland China’s rapid social and economic changes, tongzhi has become disfavored owing to its original political and revolutionist connotations. Address terms that were replaced by tongzhi (e.g. xiaojie ‘miss’) have been revived and are becoming more and more popular. Although tongzhi is out of date in mainland China, it has been appropriated by activists engaged in sexuality- based social movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan to refer to members of sexual minorities.

15 The activists’ appropriation of Tongzhi Various origin stories have been offered to explain how tongzhi was first used as a label for those of non-normative sexual orientations. Chou Wah-Shan (2000:2), a well-known scholar and activist in Hong Kong, claims that a gay activist appropriated tongzhi for the first Hong Kong Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Heung-Gong tongzhi din-ying gwai ) in 1989. The organizers of the film festival perceived labels such as gay, lesbian, and queer as Western constructs with specific histories; thus, they failed to capture the nature of Chinese same-sex desire and relationships. They believed, however, that tongzhi could serve as an indigenous denotation of same-sex eroticism.

16 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi Through the stylized use of tongzhi, activists invoke the voice of Chinese revolutionaries so as to achieve their social and expressive goals. The most prominent goal is to underscore the cultural distinctiveness of same-sex desire in Chinese cultures and societies. In stylization, the speaker adopts someone else’s discourse to reinforce his or her own words.

17 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi The association of tongzhi with Chinese revolutionaries is clearly invoked when the term is used with other linguistic features typical of revolutionist discourse to create a discourse of resistance. These features include expressions of combat, struggle, and encouragement, such as zhandou ‘combat’ and zuozhan‘ fight’ in ex. (1), nuli ‘strive’ and fendou ‘struggle’ in ex. (2), and wuqi ‘weapon’ and dafangong ‘fierce counterattack’ in ex. (3). These expressions are often in slogan forms accompanied by exclamation marks. In addition, the quote from Sun’s will has also been used several times to express encouragement by both the producers and the readers of the magazine. Ex. (4), an extract from a reader’s letter to the editor, is a typical example. The use of tongzhi in the quote does not refer to the followers of the 1911 Revolution; rather, it has been appropriated to refer to those who belong to the tongzhi movement.

18 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi the examples (1) zhandou! ai keyi lizhiqizhuang, G&L yu ni bingjian zuozhan. ‘Combat! We can love without shame, G&L will fight with you.’ (Title of a photo spread, February 1997, p. 146) (2) tongzhimen, rang women yiqi wei lixiangguo, wutuobang yiqi nuli, fendou. ‘Tongzhis, let’s join our efforts to strive and struggle for our utopia.’ (“Reply,” December 1996, p. 13) (3) tongzhi juedi dafangong: pochu tongxinglian kongjuzheng shida wuqi. ‘Tongzhis’ fierce counterattack: ten super weapons for fighting against homophobia.’ (‘Special Report,’ June 1997, p. 26) (4) kan le G&L duo xiang zanmei yi sheng: ‘geming shangwei chenggong, tongzhi rengxu nuli!’ ‘After reading G&L, I want to say: “As the revolution is not yet completed, tongzhi must endeavor to carry it out.” ’ (‘Greetings,’ February 1997, p. 10)

19 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi Through the use of tongzhi, activists, including the producers of G&L Magazine, invoke the voice of Chinese revolutionaries so as to give a sense of legitimacy to their movement. The use of tongzhi in the examples above invites the comparison of activists with Chinese revolutionaries. Both are united by shared beliefs and a striving for a shared cause – for tongzhi activists, the promotion of equal rights for Chinese sexual minorities, and for Chinese revolutionaries, the establishment of a new government. Activists exploit the revolutionary connotations of tongzhi and its suggestions of liberty, solidarity, and intimacy. They call on Chinese sexual minorities to respect themselves and to join the common endeavor of fighting for equality in a heterosexist society. The values espoused by Chinese revolutionaries – such as freedom, respect, and equality – are shared not only by tongzhi activists but also by Chinese people all over the world. Through the use of the term, tongzhi activists liken their struggle for respect and equality to Chinese revolutionaries’ fight for similar ideals in the past. Thus, the tongzhi movement is presented as a quintessential Chinese social movement.

20 Journalists’ appropriation of Tongzhi While activists’ appropriation of tongzhi exemplifies stylization, ODN editors’ and journalists’ reappropriation is a prime example of parody. Dentith (2000:9) defines parody as “any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice.”

21 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi Unlike activists, editors and journalists do not use tongzhi for its positive indexical meanings, nor do they liken activists’ struggle for respect and equality to Chinese revolutionaries’ fight for similar ideals in the past. Instead, through the use of tongzhi, ODN editors and journalists ironically “quote” activists; they incorporate the activist’s voice into highly sensationalized news stories that negatively portray sexual minorities. These stories are about murder, fist fights, gay sex clubs, and domestic disputes of gay and lesbian couples.

22 Example 5 (5) 29 November 1999 (“More than ten gigolos caught in gay bar in Chengdu”) Sei-Chyun Sing-Dou ging-fong yat-chin Yesterday in Chengdu, Sichuan, police dou-po yat-go jyun-mun tai-gung raided a bar that specialized in providing ‘siu-baak-lim’ ‘young men’ kap daai-lou-baan ‘gaau gay’ dik jau-ba, to big spenders for ‘engaging in homosexual activities’ pa-wok liu jau-ba lou-baan kap they caught the bar-owner and sap-do-ming wai laam-sing haak-yan more than ten ‘gay-lou’ who provided tai-gung sing-fuk-mou dik ‘gay-lou’. sexual services to male customers. Notice that gaau-gay and gay-lou are in quotation marks. The use of quotation marks allows the journalist to disassociate himself or herself from the derogatory expressions: The expressions in quotation marks do not belong to the journalist, but to someone else. Through this stylistic device, the journalist accomplishes an act of ventriloquism and succeeds in insulting lesbians and gay men through the words of an unnamed (homophobic) source, while distancing himself or herself from the derogatory expressions.

23 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi Headlines on Tongzhi TABLE 3. Some headlines in which the term tongzhi is used. 1. 11023098 tongzhi haap-jou fan-yi tiu-lau sei Tongzhi jumps to death in fit of jealousy 2. 12022098 Toi tongzhi gin-san jung-sam kau Gong fo haak Naked visitor from Hong Kong arrested inTaiwanese tongzhi health club 3. 107099 tongzhi dou fa-jong-ban kau siu-laamhau-pun 4. 1021099 leung tongzhi gung-chi gwai-wan jou geui-bou Two tongzhis reported to the policefor indecent behavior in public toilet 5. 4016099 luk leui tongzhi pou-ba ok-dau saam hon Six female tongzhis fiercely battle with three men in bar. 6. 5023099 seui-go yi-sau noi-fu fung-mo tongzhi Underwear of handsome men drives tongzhis crazy. 7. 705099 git-fan sap-lin fong ji fu si tongzhi Husband’s tongzhi identity only discovered after ten years 8. 7011099 yi leui-yau yau ‘oi-yu’ lau-syu wing-bit gok-wai’, leui tongzhi Female tongzhi suspects girlfriend of kong-tan ji-tung-yeuk fan-mail ‘infidelity,’ writes ‘farewell letter,’

24 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi conclusion Both gay rights activists and ODN editors and journalists attempt to control the meaning of tongzhi through the use of different strategies. For activists, tongzhi is a positive term of reference for sexual minorities. The positive indexical meanings that activists have attached to this recent label for sexual minorities – including respect, equality, and intimacy – are drawn from the previous use of tongzhi as a term of reference for Chinese revolutionaries. Activists’ stylized use of tongzhi involves narrowing the “intertextual gap” (Briggs & Bauman1992:149) between their use of tongzhi and Chinese revolutionaries’ use of the very same term.

25 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi Like Chinese revolutionaries, activists use tongzhi to call for respect and equality. This is particularly evident in activists’ use of the label in construction of a discourse of resistance. In addition to tongzhi, expressions of combat, struggle, and encouragement are used, helping to trigger the political and revolutionist connotations of the term. Through the stylized use of tongzhi, activists liken their movement to Chinese revolutionaries’ fight for similar ideals in the past in order to underscore the cultural authenticity of same-sex desire in Chinese societies.

26 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi In the hands of ODN editors and journalists, however, tongzhi has become a label for lesbians and gay men who engage in socially disapproved behavior. Editors’ and journalists’ parodic use of tongzhi involves widening the intertextual gap between their use of tongzhi and activists’ use of the term. This is achieved through the mismatch between tongzhi and the context of its use. In ODN, the term tongzhi (which activists use to demand respect for sexual minorities) finds itself in stories about gay men’s lewd conduct, lesbians’ fist fights, and other news articles in which sexual minorities are negatively portrayed.

27 The Reappropriation of Tongzhi The right to make meaning is an important form of symbolic capital. Are tongzhis members of sexual minority groups who deserve respect and equality? Or are they lesbians and gay men who engage in despicable behavior? This is not just a matter of semantics. As McConnell-Ginet (2002:158–59) points out, “words are key resources for thought and action, central players in theory and in politics.” The cycle of activists’ and journalists’ (re)appropriation of tongzhi illustrates the struggle over the meaning of the term. Both parody and stylization are important strategies in this struggle. This struggle is about how sexual minorities should be labeled and who has the right to label them. And most important, it is about the demand of sexual minorities for their rightful place in Hong Kong society.