Chinese TV balks
at airing ‘Friends’

Government trying to edit out
sitcom’s references to sex

NBC via Warner Bros.

Matthey Perry, as Chandler Bing, and Courtney Cox Arquette, as Monica Geller Bing, in the season premiere of NBC’s ‘Friends.’

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updated 3:11 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2004

BEIJING - The hit American sitcom "Friends" may prove too risque for Chinese television.

"I had thought (the show) focused on friendship, but after a careful preview I found each episode had something to do with sex," Qin Mingxin of China Central Television’s entertainment unit said in an article on the Web site of the Communist Party’s People’s Daily.

"The attitudes of the six close-knit young friends ... cannot be generally accepted by Chinese audiences yet," Qin was quoted as saying this past week.

All television in China is government-controlled, and CCTV had planned to begin airing "Friends" this year. Staff are trying to edit out the sex talk, but "we will face many problems in translation and abridgment," Qin said.

"Friends" is already popular in China, and counterfeit DVDs of are available on the country’s streets.

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