[Alex]
> If one's Chinese friends ever discover that one lived in a socialist country
> they always forewarn one never to use the Chinese equivalent of the very
> common word "comrade" - Tong Zhi, in its original meaning, because nowadays
> it is used almost exclusively to describe gays. I saw that cake - these are
> the right characters... So I wonder - since this is a new cake - what does
> it name mean - an Old Comrade or an Old Fairy?

[Michael]
A non-Chinese friend of mine who reads Chinese told me that fairy is a
designation for the Immortals, or at least one of them. (We were on the
street looking at a captioned picture of one of the Immortals when he called
this to my attention.) Same word, perhaps?

Michael