However, in mainland China, tongzhi is used both in the context of the traditional "comrade" sense (e.g., used in speeches by Chinese Communist Party officials) and to refer to homosexuals. 'comrade' sometimes along with nü tongzhi, 女同志 nǚ tóngzhì 'female comrade'), which was first adopted by Hong Kong researchers in Gender Studies, is used as slang in Mandarin Chinese to refer to homosexuals. Instead of that formal word, " tongzhi" ( 同志 tóngzhì), simply a head rhyme word, is more commonly used in the gay community. The formal modern word for "homosexuality/homosexual(s)" is tongxinglian ( 同性戀 tóngxìngliàn 'same-sex relations/love') or tongxinglian zhe ( 同性戀者 tóngxìngliàn zhě, homosexual people). Other, less literary, terms have included "male trend" ( 男風 nánfēng), "allied brothers" ( 香火兄弟 xiānghuǒ xiōngdì), and "the passion of Longyang" ( 龍陽癖 lóngyángpǐ), referencing a homoerotic anecdote about Lord Long Yang in the Warring States period. She dawdles, not daring to move closer, / Afraid he might compare her with leftover peach.
An example of the latter term appears in a 6th-century poem by Liu Xiaozhuo: Traditional terms for homosexuality included " the passion of the cut sleeve" ( Chinese: 斷袖之癖 pinyin: duànxiù zhī pǐ), and "the divided peach" ( Chinese: 分桃 pinyin: fēntáo).
Opposition to homosexuality, according to the study by Hinsch, did not become firmly established in China until the 19th and 20th centuries through the Westernization efforts of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Several early Chinese emperors are speculated to have had homosexual relationships accompanied by heterosexual ones.
According to one study, for some time after the fall of the Han Dynasty, homosexuality was widely accepted in China but this has been disputed. Homosexuality has been documented in China since ancient times.