China’s censors scrub multiple scenes of lesbian character in US sitcom Friends, sparking outrage among fans on mainland
- The censors have practically buried the lesbian identity of character Carol Willick in season 1 of Friends broadcast by local streaming video providers
- A scene of two male protagonists kissing on New Year’s Eve in episode 10 of the show was also deleted
Although one mention of the word “lesbian” was left uncut in the second episode of the show, the Chinese subtitles blatantly omitted it in translation. A scene of two male protagonists kissing on New Year’s Eve in episode 10 of the show was also deleted.
Other scenes and conversations about sex in the 24-episode first season of Friends also came under strict scrutiny from Chinese censors. In one scene, for example, the phrase “multiple orgasms” was translated to “women have endless gossips” in the Chinese subtitles.
While mainland Chinese audiences are used to foreign TV shows and films being censored, the scope of alterations in the first season of Friends available on domestic streaming video providers sparked heated discussion on social media.
“Friends censored” immediately became the No 1 trending topic on microblogging platform Weibo on Friday. The hashtag, however, was apparently also censored, as search of the topic hashtag on Weibo yielded no results early on Saturday.
