ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the limitations of using print media data to study sociolinguistic variation and change. Print media, despite the rich data that they offer, represent only particular kinds of writing produced by certain people for specific audiences. The author explains the implications of his work beyond variationist sociolinguistics. During his field research in Hong Kong, he shared with tongzhi activists his findings on the representation of sexual minorities in Oriental Daily News and engaged in productive discussions with them about the political implications of labeling practices. Tongzhi was first adopted by Nationalist revolutionaries in Republican China at the beginning of the twentieth century. During the Communist Revolution, it acquired stronger political connotations, and its use as an address term among revolutionaries became more popular. The ongoing semantic change of tongzhi from ‘comrade’ to ‘sexual minorities’ offered him a unique opportunity to study semantic variation and change, as well as the role of sexuality in sociolinguistic variation.
