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'Comrade' is dropped from China dictionary, gays upset
Saibal Dasgupta, TNN | Jul 26, 2012, 06.00AM IST
BEIJING: A widely-respected Chinese dictionary has announced that it is dropping the word 'comrade,' a commonly-used term in the Chinese language for gays.
The decision to drop the word 'tongzhi', or 'comrade', from the dictionary surprised gay rights activists and linguistic experts because it has come at a time when gay rights are being widely-accepted .
Tongzhi also serves as a substitute for 'tongxinglian', which is the formal Chinese term for homosexuality. Dictionaries, including the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (CCD), have defined 'tongxinglian' as same-sex love. With CCD now dropping the word 'tongzhi', there are clear signs that the Communist Party played a role in persuading publishers to do so.
"There have always been good words and bad ones," Cui Yan, a planning editor for Science and Technology Document Press, told Beijing Business Daily. "But they are all linguistic phenomena. Just because the dictionary doesn't include them doesn't mean they don't exist." But observers of Chinese social life believe it will take a long time to end its usage in common speech.
"It's unacceptable that the 'gay' meaning of 'tongzhi' was excluded from the dictionary, because of the compilers' own preferences and values," Nan Feng, a gay rights activist said.
Source: ‘Comrade’ is dropped from China dictionary, gays upset - The Times of India
Saibal Dasgupta, TNN | Jul 26, 2012, 06.00AM IST
BEIJING: A widely-respected Chinese dictionary has announced that it is dropping the word 'comrade,' a commonly-used term in the Chinese language for gays.
The decision to drop the word 'tongzhi', or 'comrade', from the dictionary surprised gay rights activists and linguistic experts because it has come at a time when gay rights are being widely-accepted .
Tongzhi also serves as a substitute for 'tongxinglian', which is the formal Chinese term for homosexuality. Dictionaries, including the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (CCD), have defined 'tongxinglian' as same-sex love. With CCD now dropping the word 'tongzhi', there are clear signs that the Communist Party played a role in persuading publishers to do so.
"There have always been good words and bad ones," Cui Yan, a planning editor for Science and Technology Document Press, told Beijing Business Daily. "But they are all linguistic phenomena. Just because the dictionary doesn't include them doesn't mean they don't exist." But observers of Chinese social life believe it will take a long time to end its usage in common speech.
"It's unacceptable that the 'gay' meaning of 'tongzhi' was excluded from the dictionary, because of the compilers' own preferences and values," Nan Feng, a gay rights activist said.
Source: ‘Comrade’ is dropped from China dictionary, gays upset - The Times of India