One missing clip was Lady Gaga’s duet with Lisa Kudrow on “Smelly Cat,” a jingle by Ms. Kudrow’s character, Phoebe. Also missing in the Chinese broadcasts were recollections from BTS members of watching the show when they were younger and an appearance by Mr. Bieber dressed as “Spudnik,” as David Schwimmer’s character did in an episode.
The special, which premiered on Thursday on HBO Max in the United States, brought the cast of the 1990s sitcom back together for reminiscences and performances. It was a major viewing event in China, where the show is beloved, in part by a millennial generation that grew up watching it on DVD and often used it to learn English. The sitcom was so popular that in major Chinese cities, it spawned look-alike fan cafes of the show’s coffee shop, Central Perk.
Some fan accounts on social media noted that the lengths of each version of the special varied, depending on which streaming site users watched it on, a likely indication that the online video platforms had cut the show on their own to avoid any potential grief with China’s watchful internet regulator.
The incident is the second reminder in a week of the power China wields over Hollywood stars and Beijing’s willingness to cut celebrities from its massive market if they diverge from its political dogma. This week, John Cena, the professional wrestler and a star of the newest “Fast and Furious” movie, apologized after he referred to Taiwan as a country in an interview. China considers the self-ruled island to be a part of its territory.
Faced with being cut off from business in China and its valuable box office, most celebrities have tried to stay away from sensitive subjects in China, like Tibet, Taiwan, the Xinjiang region and protests in Hong Kong.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/business/friends-reunion-china.html
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