Chinese 'Friends' Fans Drag Censors for Cutting Out Gay Content

Fans in China of the American sitcom "Friends" were quick to notice when the show started streaming with LGBTQ+ references, among other things, having been trimmed out, UK newspaper The Guardian reported.

The show has a huge following in China, reports noted. The first season of the popular sitcom began streaming on a number of Chinese services on Feb. 11 but with key differences that audiences honed right in on. The episodes were missing scenes that fans of the show knew should be there, the Guardian said, "including those relating to the character Ross explaining that his ex-wife, Carol, is gay."

The New York Times explained that particular excision, detailing how "when Ross tells his parents he has split from his wife, he doesn't explain the reason: She is a lesbian living with another woman, is now pregnant and plans to raise the baby with her partner. Instead, the scene simply cuts to his parents' stunned faces, and the plotline ends there."

"Other viewers reported cuts or mistranslations of lines by LGBTQI characters or scenes that included mildly suggestive references to strip clubs and orgasms," the Guardian article added.

"Joey's suggestion of a trip to a strip club is translated in Chinese subtitles as 'going out to have fun,'" the Times said. "When Paul the Wine Guy tells Monica, 'I haven't been able to, uh, perform sexually,' the subtitle says that he has been in 'low spirits.' A lament by Rachel that she is more 'turned on' by a gravy boat than her fiancé is translated as Rachel being more 'happy to see' tableware."

"'Covering your mouth and ears does not mean non-existence,' said one user, while another wondered how the censors would treat a storyline in later seasons, of Phoebe acting as a surrogate for her brother and his partner," the Guardian reported about the response on social media.

But the country's censors weren't finished yet.

"The backlash was itself soon censored and replaced with a more positive 'why is Friends so popular' hashtag," the story said.

The Times recalled how last year's special reuniting the show's cast "was missing cameos from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and BTS when it aired in China because those celebrities had at some point offended the country's leaders."

"'Friends' is the latest example of foreign entertainment being rewritten in China, as the country embraces more traditional gender roles under its leader, Xi Jinping," the Times said.

"Even before the regulations went into effect in September, Chinese censors had already been hard at work. In the Chinese version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' the Queen biopic, a crucial scene in which Freddie Mercury, the band's lead singer, tells his fiancée that he is gay was removed."