Censorship Concerns Sparked as Chinese Re-Release of Friends Removes Gay Storylines

Chinese censorship campaigns have been a topic of conversation for some time now, especially following the recent restoration of Fight Club after the Chinese version showed a completely different ending. Last week, the campaign took yet another victim this time in the form of the popular American sitcom Friends. 

Fans were quick to notice that various scenes relating to Ross’ ex-wife Carol and the reason for their divorce, Carol had recently come out and was living with her new girlfriend Susan, had been removed from the series. Other viewers have also noticed the removal of various scenes that have sexual or suggestive references. The show was streamed in China completely uncensored until 2018 and had a huge following across the country. This has meant that the changes to the show are being detected with ease and fans are quick to connect them to the clampdown on media due to increased censorship regulations in the past few years.

This censorship has rightfully caused an outpour of backlash from fans. This upset follows on from the fact that in 2016 the Chinese government banned all depictions of same-sex couples and homosexual characters from television, directly causing the cultural erasure of LGBTQ+ communities within the media. The topic began to trend on Chinese social media website Weibo as fans took to the platform to share their upset at the erasure and also the negative impact that the cuts have had on the quality of the show as many now found it disjointed and even felt that certain scenes or plotlines didn’t really make sense. The backlash itself was later censored as even the trending topic was replaced in an attempt to silence the conversation.

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