Hong Kong has been a part of China that has enjoyed relative independence. Since the British brought it back in 1997, has retained special laws and a more western operation in terms of legislation, economy, freedom, etc. In fact, it was a “special region” that functioned quite its own.
However, you have seen on television in recent times the massive protests of its inhabitants. These are because China is slowly undoing that special status and making it one more province like the rest. This tighter control of China, through laws, governments and non-transparent electoral processes, means that there is less freedom. Now, that has come to the unexpected, The Simpson.
Disney + broadcasts them in Hong Kong on its platform streaming but he has censored a certain episode.
Which episode of The Simpsons has Disney Plus censored in Hong Kong?
The season 16 episode 12, corresponding to the year 2005.
Its title is: “Goo Goo Gai Pan” and, in the tradition of many chapters, the Simpsons take a family trip all together, this time, to China. The humor in these episodes usually comes from the cultural shock with the country and usually rests on various topics.
And that has not pleased China this time.
Why was the episode censored?
During the chapter, the Simpsons pay a visit to historic Tiananmen Square. There they find a commemorative plaque that reads:
“In this place, in 1989, nothing happened.”
Precisely, this episode refers to China’s strict censorship of the protests and the Tiananmen Square massacre that occurred in 1989. It is a taboo subject, which is neither taught nor named. Those protests tried to achieve more freedom and openness and, after several days of tension, there were many deaths in the harsh repression to finally dissolve them.
In fact, the full scope of that is not well known, but the little that is known is harsh and terrible.
In that same episode, the family visits the mummified remains of Mao Zedong, the legendary leader of the Chinese revolution. Homer leans over Mao and says something like, “Look how he sleeps, like a little angel. One that killed 50 million people. “
Besides, also they see a row of tanks in Beijing that looks just like the one in the iconic “Tank Man” photo, that person who, with their shopping bags in hand, stood in front of a column of armored vehicles to stop them.
By the way, that man, whose identity was never definitively known, also had an unknown, though imaginable, destiny.
As we see, reality is stranger than fiction and the Simpsons, once again, display disturbing divination skills. Just like in Tiananmen Square nothing happened if you ask, there doesn’t seem to be episode 12 in season 16 if you ask Disney + either.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
