#Friends is the latest example of foreign entertainment’s being rewritten in China, after regulations went into effect in September.
Changes do not only involve deleted scenes, but also subtitled dialogue.
#censorship #China
#subtitlingheadlines
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/business/china-friends-censored.html

When Ross tells his parents that 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, & the plotline ends.

The changes have prompted biting commentary on social media from the show’s many Chinese superfans, who mocked the prudishness of censors and said the alterations reinforced gender stereotypes.

Joey’s suggestion of a trip to a strip club is translated in Chinese subtitles as “going out to have fun.” When Paul the Wine Guy tells Monica, “I haven’t been able to, uh, perform sexually,” the subtitle says 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’s being more “happy to see” tableware.