The Sociogenesis of "Tong-zhi": The Structural Transformation of (Homo-)Sexual Semantics in the Perspective of Conceptual History
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Li, Yi
Abstract
This thesis investigate how and why the leading semantics about same-sex desire change from that of behavior or action to that of identification. Taking the approach of conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte), I attempt to overcome three blind spots of existing gay history. The first blind spot is to set the abolishing of martial law as the beginning of gay historiography, thus reducing gay history to a history of gay movement, which focused on the overturning of stigma and the struggling of civil rights. The second has to do with overlooking the nuance meaning differences between semantics of same-sex desire, e.g. tong-zhi, ku-er and guai-tai, as well as the asymmetrical relationships between them. The third is to observe same-sex desire only via a single perspective, e.g. that of law or psychiatry.
Firstly, I construct the semantic field of same-sex desire, to observe the relationships of different semantics and the related history. I distinguish processes of different temporalities to grasp historical changes of different speeds. I discover that, in terms of using frequency and ways of usage, the leading semantics of same-sex desire has gradually shifted from semantics of behavior or action to that of identity which was produced by European discourses of sex, through and after the “epoch of transformation” (1895-1925), and to that of identification after mid-1970s.
Secondly, after describing the long-term structural transformation, I focus on two processes of shorter time-range. The first process is the historical moment at which the term “homosexuality” was translated into Chinese, and the period until 1990s in post-WWII Taiwan. In this interval, various individualities that could be articulated to "homosexuality" (tong-xing-lian) were produced and gradually stabilized out of the mutual observations between the manoeuvres of regulating the social (e.g. police, mental hygiene, psychiatry, counseling, urology, etc.) and the "homosexual" individuals. Besides, these individualities were psychologized, i.e. attributed to the psyche according to psychological perspectives. Although the both sides of the distinction heterosexuality/homosexuality gained later the possibilities of articulation and development, the semantics tong-xing-liang and bo-li-quan ("queer circle") tended to be closed in the temporal dimension due to the social panic rendered by by ai-si disease (AIDS). This closure hindered both terms to become dominating concept of gay movement (Tong-zhi yun-dong).
The second process unfolded from 1970s to 1990s, in which the semantics tong-zhi, ku-er, guai-tai emerged. Here, I trace the reception of the semantics tong-zhi in the political and literary fields, and clarify the context in which ku-er and guai-tai emerged. I focus on the relationships between these semantics, and the class conditions for self-identifing with them. I argue that the time dimension of the semantics tong-zhi was more open than tong-xing-lian, and there are more actions that can be articulated with tong-zhi. Moreover, the semantics tong-zhi had a higher probability of self-reproduction than that of tong-xing-lian. It thus became possible to formulate a structural change of gender and sexuality with the term tong-zhi, as to mobilize a "tong-zhi movement". In consequence of the usage of semantics tong-zhi in social movement, the making of tong-xing-lian was attributed to the social rather than the psychological. Although the semantics ku-er and guai-tai did not perform as good as tong-zhi in regard to mobilization, they produced effective reflections on the latter.
These three processes of different temporalities investigated, I then propose three synthetical conclusions. Firstly, we must take the "contemporaneity of the non-contemporaneous" (Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen) into account. The realization of same-sex desire took a different form, i.e. "double life," before the emergence of semantics tong-zhi in 1990s. Secondly, the on-going self-reproduction of "sex minorities" propelled the complexity of the semantics tong-zhi. This would probably increase both the difficulties to self-identify with tong-zhi (for the individual) and to take political action in the name tong-zhi (for the collective). Thirdly, the concept(s) of sexualities were tightly tangled with histories. A long-term second-order observation could increase the probability to achieve concept(s) of sexualities with greater degree of freedom.
Subjects
conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte)
semantic field
psychologized individualities
the open/closure of time dimension
contemporaneity of the non-contemporaneous (Gleichzeitigkeit des Ungleichzeitigen)
tong-zhi
sexuality
Type
thesis
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