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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 18:2 (2008) ► pp.277–301

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The trouble with tongzhi

The politics of labeling among gay and lesbian Hongkongers

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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 June 2008
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18.2.05won
A general address term in Communist China, tongzhi ‘comrade’ was appropriated by gay rights activists in Hong Kong to refer to members of sexual minorities. Examining its level of acceptance among non-activist gay and lesbian Hongkongers, this article argues that non-activists’ ideology about sexuality accounts for their rejection of tongzhi and their preference for strategies that leave same-sex desire unspecified. This study demonstrates how the discursive history of a label can both enable and impede its political efficacy. It also sheds light on the internal resistance that representatives of minority groups encounter when introducing new labels for those they supposedly speak for.
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Lau, Holning, Geoffrey Yeung, Rebecca L. Stotzer, Charles Q. Lau & Kelley Loper
2017. Assessing the Tongzhi Label: Self-Identification and Public Opinion. Journal of Homosexuality 64:4 ► pp. 509 ff. DOI logo
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2015. Integrating Intersectionality in Language, Gender, and Sexuality Research. Language and Linguistics Compass 9:7 ► pp. 295 ff. DOI logo
Luchkina, Tatiana
2015. Social deixis in motion. In Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Im/politeness [AILA Applied Linguistics Series, 14], ► pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
McConnell‐Ginet, Sally
2015. Politics of labeling. In The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, ► pp. 861 ff. DOI logo
Wong, Andrew D.
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

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