The language of homophobia on a Chinese campus
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Banner displayed on the main campus of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, by members of the women’s basketball team:
The banner reads:
wéihù Zhōnghuá mínzú chuántǒng lúnlǐ
hànwèi shèhuì zhǔyì héxīn jiàzhí
dǐzhì xīfāng fǔxiǔ sīxiǎng qīn shí
ràng tóngxìngliàn yuǎnlí dàxué xiàoyuán
维护中华民族传统伦理
捍卫社会主义核心价值
抵制西方腐朽思想侵蚀
让同性恋远离大学校园
Maintain the traditional morals of the Chinese people,
Defend the core values of socialism;
Resist the corrosion of decadent Western thought,
Keep homosexuality far from our university campus
When a photo of the students holding the banner was posted online by the team's coach, there was widespread opposition.
"Furor in China Over Team’s Banner: ‘Keep Homosexuality Far From Campus’" (NYT, Javier C. Hernández, 4/20/17)
"Mothers united to fight against a homophobic banner unfurled at a college in China" (Mashable, Yi Shu Ng, 4/20/17)
bié ràng kǒngtóngzhě shānghài wǒmen de háizi!
别让恐同者伤害我们的孩子!
Don't let homophobes harm our children!
If only China could have such open debate of opposing opinions on other pressing social and political issues!
AntC said,
April 20, 2017 @ 10:09 pm
I notice each line on the basketball team's banner is exactly ten characters; and your pinyin gives exactly ten syllables (apart from the last).
The 'words' (between spaces in the pinyin) are nearly all two-syllable. (Again the last line rather breaks that up.)
Does a five-by-two-syllable phrase have a particular scansion or propaganda value? Does the last line's having a slightly different scansion help emphasise its propaganda message — 'the closer'?
Marnanel said,
April 21, 2017 @ 1:01 am
This is filed under "neologisms": what's the neologism here? I speak no Chinese, so I'm wondering.
Victor Mair said,
April 21, 2017 @ 6:06 am
"what's the neologism here?"
kǒngtóngzhě 恐同者 ("homophobes")
xyloph said,
April 21, 2017 @ 7:16 am
Interestingly enough, the word 恐同 follows well known and quite logical Chinese word forming rules, taking one character for each component, much like 彩电 is drawn from 彩色电视机. Homophobia, on the other hand, is a terrible neologism.
StephenL said,
April 21, 2017 @ 9:03 am
The old escape route if an unsuspecting parent found your university LGBT society membership card while doing the laundry was to claim it stood for "lady's and gent's basketball team".
Guy said,
April 21, 2017 @ 3:35 pm
xyloph,
What's your objection to "homophobia"? It follows a pattern similar to "Francophobe". Is it just that the "homo" part is only one morpheme from the neoclassical compound "homosexual"? Incidentally, one criticism of the word "homosexual" I've heard is that combines a Greek root with a Latin one.