同
Symbols Relationships
comrade
志
ㄊㄨㄥˊ ㄓˋ tóng zhì
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
Someone bound to you by a shared cause. In modern Chinese the obvious word has two strong and unrelated readings.
Before you commit
Choose with care同志 carries two meanings at once. In the mainland it is the Communist Party form of address; in Taiwan and Hong Kong it is the ordinary word for a gay person. Neither reading is avoidable.
At small sizesSix strokes plus seven, both square and open. The pair reads cleanly even small.
Cultural note戰友 and 同袍 carry the comrade bond without the political freight of 同志. 同袍 is from the Book of Songs — 豈曰無衣，與子同袍, two soldiers sharing one coat — though in mainland China today it is mainly what hanfu enthusiasts call each other.
Meaning
Comrade; one of the same purpose. Also a gay person.
The literal translation, and the standard address in mainland politics.
Other characters for “comrade”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
Related concepts