Friends ended in 2004 following 10 seasons.
Several Chinese broadcasting platforms have censored homosexual content in the American series “Friends”.
The series began broadcasting in China this week on more than one platform, but some of its Chinese fans complained regarding the deletion of some scenes, including scenes that refer to a gay female character and others that include a kiss by two people of the same sex.
It was not clear why the scenes were deleted, and none of the platforms that did the deletion commented on the accusations.
The series, which ran between 1994 and 2004, takes place in New York City and centers on a group of friends and stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer.
The series has a very large number of followers in China, and is credited with teaching many Chinese the English language and introducing them to American culture.
The Soho Corporation acquired the rights to broadcast the series between 2012 and 2018 and did not censor the content, but Chinese fans have expressed disappointment on social media over the deletion in the recently broadcast episodes.
A dialogue regarding a hero leaving his wife was deleted because he found out that she was a lesbian.
Inaccurate translations were used to disguise the sexual content, according to the South China Morning Post. An example is translating “multiple sexual climax” into “female gossip without borders.”
“The translation not only ignores women’s sexual desire and pleasure, but also reinforces feminist stereotypes,” one viewer wrote on a social networking site, CNN reported.
Another wrote, “If you cannot show the content without deficiency in the current circumstances, do not show the series in its entirety.”
Many users called for a boycott of the series.
The hashtag #FrindsCensored has become very popular in recent days, but a search for the hashtag in recent days has not yielded much results, meaning that public discussion on the topic may have been censored.
China has closed dozens of websites and social media accounts in recent years, claiming that they contain pornographic or obscene materials, or because they are considered anti-Chinese or illegal.
Scenes featuring Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and K-Pop have been removed from the series Friends from last year’s Friends special episode.
It was not clear why the musicians were removed from the content, but they had been accused of insulting China. Lady Gaga was banned from a China tour following meeting the Dalai Lama in 2016.
