China Censors 'Friends: The Reunion' By Cutting BTS, Justin Bieber & Lady Gaga Cameos | THR News - video Dailymotion

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When the HBO Max special hit Chinese streaming services, it was missing key moments starring celebs who have been blacklisted by the country, as well as cameos featuring LGBTQ fans.

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00:00HBO Max's Friends reunion special was partially censored in China,

00:04missing key moments starring celebrities who have been blacklisted by the country.

00:09Approximately six minutes of the special episode was missing as it rolled out on Chinese streaming services.

00:14Among the cuts were special appearances by BTS, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga,

00:19as well as brief cameos made by LGBTQ Friends fans.

00:23China boasts an enormous Friends fan base,

00:25however, the country's leading video platforms made heavy-handed alterations to the episode when it acquired the special.

00:32In the original version of the special, BTS makes a brief appearance to share their love of Friends.

00:37In China, the segment was missing altogether,

00:40presumably since BTS has been a target of China's censors and nationalists since last October,

00:46when, while accepting an award celebrating cultural relations between the U.S. and South Korea,

00:50band member RM mentioned the history of pain and shared sacrifices of South Korean and U.S. soldiers during the Korean War.

00:58China supported the North in the war.

01:00Lady Gaga's widely praised rendition of Smelly Cat with Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe was also trimmed back.

01:07Gaga has been banned in China ever since she met with the Dalai Lama back in 2016.

01:16Elsewhere, Justin Bieber's brief appearance in the HBO Max special,

01:20in which he dons Ross' ridiculous Spudnik Halloween costume,

01:23also got the axe, since the singer was also previously banned.

01:27However, the most repressive was the Chinese streamer's handling of the brief moments in the Friends reunion

01:32that reference or celebrate LGBTQ fans of the show,

01:35with all such sequences being cut by all three video platforms.

01:39Despite the cuts, the special currently has a sky-high 9.5 out of 10 rating on China's movie and TV review site,

01:47making it one of the highest-rated TV imports in recent memory.

01:50For more on this story, head to THR.com.

01:53For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.

China Censors 'Friends: The Reunion' By Cutting BTS, Justin Bieber & Lady Gaga Cameos | THR News

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