The long-awaited return Friday of the cult series Friends on Chinese streaming sites was disrupted when fans noticed the disappearance of any reference to the homosexuality of one of the female characters, Carol, Ross’ ex-wife. On the social network Weibo, the equivalent of Twitter in China, the hashtag “ Friends censored” has been viewed tens of millions of times.
In the viewfinder, the changes made to the second episode of the first season, as broadcast by the Bilibili, Tencent, iQiyi and Youku platforms. “I found out that all of the dialogue that mentioned Carol’s homosexuality had been cut. The cuts are obvious”, writes a user whose message has attracted more than 177,000 “Likes”.
Censorship denounced on social networks
The communist power has increased in recent years its censorship of “sensitive” themes such as sexuality, violence or politics, particularly in imported works. An attitude that does not fail to arouse the irony of some Internet users. “Why talk about homosexuality? There is no such thing here, where eternal perfection reigns. Everyone is happy under this government,” quipped another Weibo user.
These criticisms were in turn deleted from the social network and the subversive hashtag was replaced on Sunday with another: “Why is Friends so popular”.
A well-known series in China
The series, broadcast from 1994 to 2004 in the United States, is very well known in China, where millions of people have watched it on DVD. Many young Chinese say they learned English with the help of Friendswhich had previously been streamed by Sohu between 2012 and 2013, uncensored.
In 2019, several scenes of Bohemian Rhapsody referring to the sexuality of Freddie Mercury, the singer of the group Queen, had also been erased from the version broadcast in China. More recently, David Fincher’s film fight club aroused the amazement of moviegoers, for a truncated end at the antipodes of the original work. After an outcry, the film’s ending was finally retconned.