Chinese Fans of 'Friends' Angry After Show Re-released With Censorship (reuters.com) 84
An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese fans of U.S. sitcom "Friends" have expressed dismay online after noticing censorship in recently released episodes of the beloved show, including of LGBT issues. Several major Chinese streaming sites, including Tencent, Baidu's IQiyi, Alibaba's Youku, and Bilibili, started showing a version of the first season of the show on Friday, its first re-release in China for several years. But fans soon noticed parts of the long-running show were different to what they had seen before and complained of censorship which included the removal of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-related content, as well as mistranslations. In one example, a conversation where a main character, Ross, explained his wife was a lesbian, was deleted. Another scene where another character, Joey, suggested going to a "strip joint" was translated as "go out to play" on the version shown on Tencent Video. As users started to notice the changes, they began discussing and "boycotting" the move. The discussion was a "hot search topic" on Weibo on Sunday. Reuters adds: But in a sign the discussion itself may have caught the attention of censors, searches on Weibo on Sunday for several variations on the hashtag or search term #Friendshasbeencensored produced either zero or limited recent results. The development follows a similar treatment of David Fincher's 1999 cult classic "Fight Club." Fans were shocked to find that a version of the movie that was made available on Tencent Video had a new ending where the authorities win. After much uproar, the original ending for the movie was restored.
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We should take other parts of reality out of the content we consume, like the color blue. Some of us find it uncomfortable to see and it wasn't missed in 1950's black & white television.
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The color blue doesn't put preteens on hormone blockers.
Of all the possible drugs young children are being fed, hormone blockers have to be some of the mildest one.
This is a world where 12 year old children are given antipsychotics which are known to cause permanent loss of motor function and white brain matter, but somehow sex hormone blockers is the talk of the day because gender is the most holy thing in the universe.
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There has long been an over-emphasis on the role of gender in our culture, and really most cultures. Some get it worse than Western culture, a few obscure cultures get it better. A number of people want to take us back to some earlier time where biological sex and gender roles in society were static and inflexible. It lends a certain simplicity and stability to a patriarchy. This is obsolete thinking in my opinion. Modern industrialized society operates under different constraints and has different requirem
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There has long been an over-emphasis on the role of gender in our culture
You know that you and I share a culture for a fact?
Some get it worse than Western culture
I certainly do not believe there to be something such as a “western culture”. “West” in practice is purely a race-based classification and in practice is used for any country where the majority of the population looks sufficiently indigenously European. — England is culturally closer to Japan than either is to, say, Denmark.
A number of people want to take us back to some earlier time where biological sex and gender roles in society were static and inflexible.
Back? Self-styled traditionalists in my opinion, as well as many others, simply have a poor understanding
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You know that you and I share a culture for a fact?
Yes. for some definition of culture, hopefully the definition I intended and not a definition where I am wrong.
I certainly do not believe there to be something such as a “western culture”.
That's a pity. It exists in the sense that I mean it. There are cultural touchstones that reach thousands of years back through the Mediterranean and Near East that have proved excellent sources of thesis papers for Anthropologist.
“West” in practice is purely a race-based classification and in practice is used for any country where the majority of the population looks sufficiently indigenously European.
I would say there is a distinction between a racist country, that practices systematic racism in favor of those with European anscetry. And the language, art, and history
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That's a pity. It exists in the sense that I mean it. There are cultural touchstones that reach thousands of years back through the Mediterranean and Near East that have proved excellent sources of thesis papers for Anthropologist.
Then tel me, which are these that are supposedly limited to and common to so-called “western culture”.
I would say there is a distinction between a racist country, that practices systematic racism in favor of those with European anscetry. And the language, art, and history collectively shared with roots in ancient Greece, ancient Roman, Mesopotamian culture, and generally speak descendants of a theoretical Proto-Indo-European language.
I merely said that the distinction of classifying countries in “western” and “non-western” is based upon race, not that “western countries” are racist.
Furthermore, most speakers of Indo-European languages live in Central, and South Asia, and many “western countries” do not have an Indo-Euoperean language as the majority language. Indo-European lang
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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When did this happen (removal)? And as far as demonetization, if someone doesn't watch any LGBT content, why would they even know about it? It's a non example.
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When did this happen (removal)?
Precisely. The right doesn't care about youtube "censoring". They only care about youtube "censoring" them.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/... [theverge.com]
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Really?
Trying to silence pro abortion:
https://www.liveaction.org/new... [liveaction.org]
I have also heard a pro abortion activist say pro life people have the right to an opinion as long as they keep it to themselves (sorry no reference).
On feminism:
https://www.realclearpolitics.... [realclearpolitics.com]!
Look I'm not saying there are not calls for censorship on both sides, but to say one side is squeaky clean, and to say out all the left leaning people in the world none of them want censorship on any topic is ridiculous.
Also saying silencing pe
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You can add sexism to that. To pick a recent example a woman had one of her videos demonetized because she had a dress maker's dummy (sorry I don't know what you call it, basically a torso to put clothes on while you adjust them) that was based on a 3D scan of her own body in a video, and YouTube decided it was too sexy.
Meanwhile there are literally hundreds of videos where dudes 3D print women's torsos as "test" prints, or make highly sexualized anime girl models, and yet are allowed to monetize their vide
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Troll account. Nothing to see here.
Re:Why so angry? (Score:5, Interesting)
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I wonder if they removed the homophobic parts as well. There are a few times when characters react with disgust to the suggestion that they might have a same sex relationship.
I wonder if they removed it or if anything anti gay is okay.
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That's not homophobic, at least not on the part of the writers, its purpose is to demonstrate how badly gays are treated.
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As you wish (Score:2)
You are right, but as Baconsmoke has already said, disingenuous.
I would be floored if you were unaware of the First Amendment and its power against government censorship. The answer, then, is "they don't, because they know they can't get away with it." Doesn't mean that wouldn't try, if they thought they could get away with it.
Baconsmoke pointed out a good number of cases where Republicans have - effectively - been censoring LGBT issues in "real life". He even pointed out that books on such issues are be
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Yep, its those Democrats who are wanting to remove MAUS from schools in Tennessee... oh wait
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Hollywood needs to stop bowing done / armed forces (Score:1)
Hollywood needs to stop bowing done / armed forces in movies need to say if you want to use us in your movie then we will not be pro china.
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Hollywood is in the business of making money, and China are using the reliable greed of capitalism to get what they want.
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The GP stated it poorly (and ungrammatically). Perhaps I can interpret for him...
Hollywood's adjusting movie plots and themes to satisfy Chinese government censors is a poor bet. They allow the Chinese government a lot of editorial control, both overt and implied. "Bet" because even after they have spent the money modifying the film to try to satisfy the censors, it is still not a guarantee of the film being shown in China. Events in the US (such as Daryl Moray's Hong Kong tweet) can cause China to de
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...in pursuing the China market, they risk alienating their audience in the US by turning out product that just doesn't play well here.
That is obviously a risk they're prepared to take, and it has paid off handsomely so far.
Greedy capitalists don't care about anything except profits, and they don't care about the things that ordinary people like you and I care about because why would they? The people at the top of these corporations don't have to live by the same rules we do.
is this why top gun 2 is so delayed need edit it? (Score:2)
is this why top gun 2 is so delayed? Does it need lot's of edits to pass chinas ok?
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Does it need lot's of edits to pass chinas ok?
Probably.
China made it quite clear in the 1990's that if western corporations wanted to play on their home field the rules would be different, and the western corporations agreed, because they saw a huge new market of potential consumers, and labour to exploit.
I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that this is the outcome.
Updated theme song (Score:5, Funny)
So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your job's fulfilling and no one there is gay,
The central committee's fully got your back,
Life's getting better and better, there's no turning back!
We'll be there for you
(Your local central committee)
We'll be there for you
(For the West you should feel pity)
We'll be there for you
('Cause you're there for us too... OR ELSE)
You get up early, already working hard at eight,
Your Chinese breakfasts always are perfect and great
Your Uyghur mother might be in a camp, but
She shouldn't have been such a subversive little tramp
We'll be there for you
(Your local central committee)
We'll be there for you
(For the West you should feel pity)
We'll be there for you
('Cause you're there for us too... OR ELSE)
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Brilliant effort!
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Get a hard copy (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one more reason you might want to get a good old-fashioned DVD or Blu-Ray of your favorite movie. As long as you're getting it via streaming, you have to contend with the possibility the stream will be changed in ways you don't like after the fact. This might be blatant censorship like what's happening in China, or just the original director deciding that Greedo shot first. Either way, having a hard copy prevents someone else from changing it for you with nothing you can do about it.
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Oh, wait, wasn't that from Fahrenheit 451? About books?
I guess China will have to invent something new, because Ray Bradbury could not predict the rise of movies at home, in 1953.
Guess the next new thing, is transcoding your DVDs & Blr-rays, then copying them to Micro-SD cards, which you can hide outside your home when the government censors come by to verify you are i
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Ah, but wait til the government makes owning such illegal, and sends out fireman to collect your DVDs and Blu-rays and burns them!
Oh, wait, wasn't that from Fahrenheit 451?
No worries, they'll burn Fahrenheit 451 too.
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Maybe this is why an unopened copy of the original home video release on VHS is expected to sell for around $60K [tmz.com].
In other news... (Score:1)
I think my memory must be faulty... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wasn't it big corporations like Apple and Disney, greedy for access to the huge Chinese market, who swore to us that by making a few compromises to get their foot in the door, they would lead the way toward turning PRC into a free speech, human rights loving paradise?
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Disney censors for the West too. They added some CGI hair to cover up an actress' arse in Splash, for example. Some stuff is just not available, like Song of the South (although it's on archive.org if you really want it, it's shit anyway...)
There has been region specific censorship since forever too. When Nintendo brought many games to the US they removed all the crosses so as not to upset Christians. Even things like the red cross on hospitals. When American games were released in Germany they removed all
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All you say is true, but I think the Chinese have taken censorship to a new level.
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The removal of the red cross on hospitals, health packs, etc. isn't due to Christian censorship. It's because the red cross emblem is an international "trademark" belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Geneva. The international restrictions around the red cross emblem are part of the Geneva Convention, technically all countries party to the convention should enforce regulation of the use of the red cross emblem, but in practice enforcement is patchy.
You'll notice the red cross i
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Obligatory (Score:2)
"Why does Ross, the largest "Friend", not simply eat the other five?"
Mirror Universe Kung Fu Films? (Score:2)
Not a lot of faith in its propaganda (Score:2)
As far as transgressive media properties, if you don't think your populace can handle "Friends" in the 21st century I think you might have to relent a bit on the social conditioning.
In one example, a conversation where a main character, Ross, explained his wife was a lesbian, was deleted.
Another scene where another character, Joey, suggested going to a "strip joint" was translated as "go out to play" on the version shown on Tencent Video. Reuters confirmed the Tencent version of the re-released season inclu
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Someone help me (Score:1)
I can't spot the crypto/nft connection for this story.
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Fight Club? (Score:2)
I mean, I'm a little surprised that any discussion of Friends being censored has been censored, but I'm not too surprised about the discussion of Fight Club censorship being censored. After all, the first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club [censorship].
BTW, does this feel like a Monty Python sketch? The person responsible for sacking the person responsible for censuring the censorship of discussions of censorship has been sacked.
Don't they have their own TV shows? (Score:2)
thought-crime (Score:2)
Why do totalitarian/authoritarian governments need to pretend everyone is 'normal'? Sure, that is what normal and almost-normal people do anyway and every manager wants consistency and sameness. But so many bureacrats think they can ThoughtCrime the weirdness out of people. The attempts of North Korea and Iran prove it doesn't work.
When many countries are working to admit not everyone is white, not everyone is heterosexual, not everyone is male/female, (dishonesty about sex and violence continues), cen
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Why do totalitarian/authoritarian governments need to pretend everyone is 'normal'? Sure, that is what normal and almost-normal people do anyway and every manager wants consistency and sameness. But so many bureacrats think they can ThoughtCrime the weirdness out of people. The attempts of North Korea and Iran prove it doesn't work.
Iran actually funds transgender operations.
When many countries are working to admit not everyone is white
It's funny that you mention it, yet most dictatorships you mention are not white.
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Iran actually funds transgender operations.
"... have allowed for transsexuals to reassign their sex so that they can enter heterosexual relationships."
— Wikipedia
In Iran, we do not have homosexuals like in your country.
— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Former Iranian President, Columbia University, 2007-09-24
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Why do totalitarian/authoritarian governments need to pretend everyone is 'normal'?
Because to them anything not "normal" is an inconvenience, and they believe they can stamp out all such inconveniences. Probably they think that we're talking about learned behaviors (which might be true somehow) and that they can therefore change them (which doesn't really follow.) But more likely as long as people pretend they will be satisfied with making their lives shit as punishment for being an inconvenience.
Who edited out the minorities from Manhattan? (Score:2)
Oh wait, that was the way the show was originally, until David Schwimmer, to his lasting credit, insisted that change, and Aisha Tyler was added to the show. A good deed that was rewarded as the show had them have a romance. :)
The borderline homophobia transphobia of the earliest seasons didn't come courtesy of China, that was the show going for cheap laughs, like when they thought it would be funnier to turn the Italian-American character, Joey, into a cheap stereotype, and start depicting him as cognitive
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I loved Episodes. What a fantastic show. And yeah, Matt LeBlanc did an amazing job in it.
Before watching it... "oh, a washed up actor that can only play one character is basically going to reprise that character for everyone to play off."
After watching it... "hey, he's actually a pretty good actor."
Forum posts are news now? (Score:2)
The real news is obviously the altered content of the television series. Forum posts, without a statement of how many, is hardly news worthy.
LOL (Score:1)
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