Friends has been stripped of its lesbian storyline for the Chinese re-release of the sitcom, prompting censorship concerns.
On Friday a number of entertainment platforms including Tencent – which made headlines earlier this month for carrying a version of Fight Club with a totally different ending – began airing the first season of Friends, which was originally broadcast in 1994.
Fans who had seen the programme before were quick to notice the absence of several scenes, including those relating to the character Ross explaining that his ex-wife, Carol, is gay. Other viewers reported cuts or mistranslations of lines by LGBTQI characters or scenes that included mildly suggestive references to strip clubs and orgasms.
On China’s Weibo the apparent censorship became a trending topic, with tens of millions of views of related hashtags and comments.
“Covering your mouth and ears does not mean non-existence,” said one user, while another wondered how the censors would treat a storyline in later seasons, of Phoebe acting as a surrogate for her brother and his partner.
One viewer praised the show for having portrayed LGBTQI characters in “a natural and normal way” at a time when few other pop culture products were.
“On the other hand, in today’s China, under a similar environment, not only is there no TV drama with high popularity and high reputation, which can insert gay characters into the play in a similar way, but even introduced foreign TV shows don’t dare to completely show gay content,” they said. “I don’t understand why this line was cut, why it’s still the same here after 30 years, we are even going backwards.”
The backlash was itself soon censored and replaced with a more positive “why is Friends so popular” hashtag.
Friends is hugely popular in China and was previously streamed online and uncensored until 2018. DVDs of the show are also widely available. However, there has been an apparent rise in censorship of entertainment in recent years, in an increasingly politically sensitive environment under Xi Jinping, which has also targeted non-traditional family values and culture.
Guidelines first introduced in 2016 banning the depiction of gay people on TV, as well as presentation of extramarital affairs and one night stands, have tightened further. Last year regulators ordered broadcasters to avoid what it called “abnormal aesthetics”, and “sissy men”. LGBTQI online accounts, university groups, and publications have been shut down.
Foreign productions have also struggled to gain access to China. Major Hollywood blockbusters, including the recent Marvel film Shang-Chi, have been denied releases apparently over perceived slights to China or its government. Earlier this month the discovery that the plot of Fight Club had been changed on Tencent to tell viewers police had “rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals” sparked widespread backlash and subsequent restoration of the original ending. Scenes were also cut from Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2019 film about Queen and Freddie Mercury, before its theatrical release in Chinese cinemas.
