Born this way (chop suey)

These days I’ve been “brainwashed” by the radio with Lady Gaga’s latest release “Born this way.” It’s like whenever I turn my radio on, I hear the song.

Funny that these years we’ve converted the word “comrade” 同志(tong2 zhi4) into referring to gay. The term with such a strong political color has now turned sexual. In my neighborhood there is a lane called同志巷(tong2 zhi4 xiang4), Comrade Lane. I remember reading on paper how some of the residents had wanted to change its name as they didn’t feel comfortable about it. (But I still saw the same street name the other day when I drove past it.)

As to the lesbians, we have transliterated the word into 蕾絲邊(lai2 si bian), a term quite feminized since it’s associated with lace used in feminine attire.

Back at ancient times, we had a euphemism for gay, which was also relevant to clothing. It was recorded in a historical classic, 漢書(han4 shu), where 漢哀帝(han4 ai di4), Emperor Ai, was recorded to have petted a male official so much that he kept him as his close servant and lived every moment of his life with this handsome-looking man, 董賢(dong2 xian2). One day Emperor Ai woke up from his afternoon nap and wanted to get up, only to find that one of his sleeves was pressed under Dong, who was sleeping by his side. Worried that he would wake up Dong, he took his knife and cut off the sleeve so that Dong wouldn’t be disturbed.

Thus came the term 斷袖之癖(duan4 xiu4 zhi pi4). 斷is to cut off while袖is the sleeve. The word癖has a negative implication as it often refers to an abnormal mania. And sodomy was called 雞姦(ji jian). 雞is chicken, 姦, adultery. From these derogatory terms you could tell how people had viewed homosexual back in old times.

Thirty years ago in Taiwan, before we use同志, gays were called 玻璃(bo li2), glass. I have no idea where the term comes from. Some people say in argot glass means bottom, which implies the way gay people have sex.

I learned from the net that in Beijing people use rabbit, 兔子(tu4 zi3) to call gays, which I really can’t figure out any association. In Shanghai it’s 屁精(pi4 jing), where butt屁 is involved.

People in Taiwan are getting more and more open-minded toward homosexual or transsexual compared to older generations. However, it’s natural that people vary in their attitude towards sexual orientations. Yesterday we had a piece of news where a man was convicted a 55-day detention for referring the term娘(niang2) to another man, which used to mean “mom” in ancient times but now is used to mean “feminine” in a derogatory way to men.

蔡康永(cai4 kang yong3), a well-known out-of-closet host, once wrote an article expressing his hope that some day the term 娘will be a compliment, or at least a neutral term to refer to the generally recognized “feminine” traits such as tenderness, thoughtfulness or cautions. Looks like we have a long way to go seeing from this legal case.

蕾絲邊=蕾丝边

漢書=汉书

漢哀帝=汉哀帝

董賢=董贤

斷袖之癖=断袖之癖

雞姦=鸡奸