Censorship of "Friends" in China again: The Apparatchiks' fear of female sexuality

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»Friends« scene with David Schwimmer and Jane Sibbett (middle): The idea of ​​the blended family is not part of the Chinese reproductive bureaucracy

Photo: NBC / Everett Collection / IMAGO

China's censors were back at work.

After just the week before last they had completely recut the end of David Fincher's violent grotesque »Fight Club« for streaming use, in order to snip the film back almost to its original state a few days later, the US series popular across generations and around the world now » Friends« in their scissor hands.

The sitcom's reunion special was criticized in China last May, when guest appearances by Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and South Korean boy band BTS were cut out.

The reason for the earlier "Friends" censorship could have been that Bieber and Lady Gaga had once made negative comments about China and that the BTS band leader had spoken in a very mild way about the Korean War (and the geopolitical involvement of China) in it.

One had to delve deep into Chinese apparatchik thinking to understand this measure.

With the recent "Friends" mutilation, the case is clearer.

As reported by CCN, among other things, passages from the series that revolve around same-sex love were cut out and reworked.

The reason for the censorship here is clearly the repressive sexual morality of the Chinese rulers.

100 million for a year of broadcasting rights

After an uncut version of "Friends" ran on various Chinese platforms ten years ago, a shortened and incorrectly subtitled version was released on various streaming providers on Friday.

The long-running TV hit is still a lucrative licensed product that the rights holder Warner Media deals in for high sums in the millions.

Netflix reportedly paid $100 million in 2018 to stream Friends for a year.

Again and again, new generations of young people around the world are rediscovering the twentysomething adventures of the Friends Sextet as a mirror of their own experiences and aspirations.

This is what makes »Friends« dangerous in the eyes of the Chinese censors.

They have now rigorously edited the show's storyline, which is about a lesbian relationship: Ross (David Schwimmer), one of the main characters, is dumped in the first season by his pregnant wife (Jane Sibbett) because she found out that she is a lesbian

A development that unsettles Ross, who is already fundamentally disturbed, deep in his hetero self-image.

The two then have their child together and raise it with the ex's new partner in a blended family.

Three parents and a son, that hardly corresponds to the reproductive ideals of the People's Republic, which interferes in the most intimate spheres in the birth planning of its residents.

But not only these story elements were edited, but also a scene in which two other male main characters talk shop about female sexuality: In the relevant passage, Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) kiss slightly tensely at twelve o'clock on New Year's Eve and then reflect on the fact that women, unlike men, can have »multiple orgasms«.

In the Chinese version of the governess, the "multiple orgasms" now become the "infinite gossip" that women, unlike men, are said to be able to enjoy.

That's the important thing: the censors not only cut songs of praise for the free development of sexuality, but also scenes that deal with male insecurity when looking at female sexuality.

The sometimes revealing, sometimes stupid joke of »Friends« is that it targets the limitations and phobias of its male protagonists.

These aren't free spirits, but friendly oafs who meekly capitulated in the face of the sea of ​​opportunities that opened up on their doorstep in hedonistic Manhattan in the 1990s.

»Friends« was certainly never the spearhead of the LTGBQ movement;

the series has often even been accused of homophobia.

You have to imagine the Chinese guardians of morals a bit like the proto-heteros Ross, Chandler and Joey: They look at the female and same-sex reservoir of pleasure with fear and horror.

But in contrast to the sympathetic series anti-heroes, who worked at least ten seasons on their own conservative narrow-mindedness, China's apparatchiks simply wipe out what doesn't fit into their state's reproductive bureaucracy.