Harry Potter, and JK Rowling’s wider Wizarding World, are incredibly popular in China. So much so that the nation’s Ministry of Education added the tales of Harry, Ron and Hermione’s schooldays to an official list of recommended reading for primary and secondary school students in 2017. The first two Fantastic Beasts movies made more than £100m at the Chinese box office, and new episode, Secrets of Dumbledore, is also expected to perform well there.
But when Chinese audiences sit down to find out what it is the heroic Hogwarts headmaster has been keeping to himself, they may find themselves wondering if they’ve been targeted with one of Potter’s famed Confundus charms. For censors have reportedly made the decision to cut all gay references from the movie. These include a line in which Jude Law’s Dumbledore tells evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) he once went along with his dastardly plans “because I was in love with you”, and another reference to “the summer Gellert and I fell in love”.
