The very expected return of the worship series of the 1990s was disturbed, when the fans found themselves from the disappearance of any reference to the Lesbian love story of a character.
Le Monde with AFP
Homosexuality does not have the right to cited in China. Chinese censorship has sevised against the Friends American series. The decision has aroused the anger of the fans of the American series, especially on social networks.
The very expected return, Friday, February 11, the cult series of the 1990s on the Chinese streaming sites was disturbed when amateurs found to be the disappearance of any reference to the homosexuality of one of the female characters . On the Weibo social network, equivalent of Twitter in China, the # FriendsCensured hashtag has been seen tens of millions of times.
In the viewfinder, the modifications made to the second episode of the first season, as distributed by the Bilibili, Tencent, Iqiyi and Youku platforms. “I discovered that all the dialogs of homosexuality of Carol, the ex-wife of Ross, had been cut off. The cuts are obvious,” writes a user whose message generated more than 177,000 “J ‘Love “.
The communist power increased in recent years its censorship of “sensitive” themes in his eyes like sexuality, violence or politics, particularly in imported works.
Recurring censorships
An attitude that arouses the irony of some users. “Why speak of homosexuality? Such a thing does not exist here, where the eternal perfection reigns. Everyone is happy under this government”, persifles another Weibo user. These critics have in turn been erased from the social network and the subversive keyword was replaced on Sunday by a question: “Why is Friends so popular?”
The series, broadcast from 1994 to 2004 in the United States, is well known in China, where millions of people watched it on DVD. Number of Chinese young people entrust learning English with the help of Friends, which had already been streaming by Sohu, between 2012 and 2013, without being censored.
Hard to say whether the changes made to the Episodes of Friends have been imposed by the authorities. In 2019, several scenes from Bohemian Rhapsody referring to the sexuality of Freddie Mercury, the Queen Group’s singer, had also been gummed from the version broadcast in China.
More recently, the worship film of David Fincher Fight Club sparked the stupor of cinephiles, for a truncated end to the antipodes of the original work. After an outcry, the end of the film was finally restored. Some producers sometimes take on them to cut movie or series scenes hoping to get an authorization for the Chinese market.