A chapter of The Simpsons dating from 2005 has disappeared from the platform as part of an act of censorship by the Chinese government.
According to what has been reported in different media, the chapter “Goo Goo Gai Pan”, which was in season 16 of the series, is not available to the public in Hong Kong.
In the episode in question, the Simpson family travels to China so that Selma, Marg Simpson’s sister, can adopt a baby; However, not being married (an essential requirement in the plot of the chapter), she asks Homer Simpson for help to pretend to be her husband and, finally, carry out the adoption process.
One of the key elements of this chapter is when Homer Simpson himself refers to Mao Zedong, former president of the People’s Republic of China, as “a little angel who killed 50 million people”, a clear allusion to the protests in the Plaza de Tiananmen that would end in one of the most tragic events in the country.
As if that were not enough, in the episode there is a legend that says “on this site, in 1989, nothing happened”, a fact that would motivate, according to what was published by The New York Times, his expulsion from the platform as part of an explicit request by the Xi Jinping government.
So far, neither Disney nor the Hong Kong authorities have come out to issue any statement in this regard, although some experts say that it is a strategy not to hinder their relations with the Asian giant.
Without a doubt, on the one hand, we are talking about one of the most controversial animated series of all time, which, over the years, has been the object of scrutiny and analysis by various experts.
However, it must be taken into account that what happened in 1989, in Tiananmen Square, is one of the most tragic episodes in the history of China and that, by its nature, an attempt has been made to erase all record of it.
In this sense, the Chinese government has dedicated itself to restricting all kinds of images and reports of that event, where hundreds of people asked for their lives and which went around the world.
Over the past year, China has been very tough on the content it decides to broadcast for users; Let us remember that, for a few months now, it has been censoring different television programs for considering them “vulgar”.
It has not only gotten into television issues, but it has even reached the video game market by applying a series of very severe restrictions.
On the other hand, it should be noted that Disney is not the only company to censor itself in front of the Chinese authorities. In that sense, Apple also asks its creators of series and films not to make content that does not criticize the Asian giant.
And it is that the Chinese market is one of the most attractive for the entertainment industry in the United States. To mention one example, the Avengers: Endgame reached a figure of 600 million dollars raised at the box office, a reason powerful enough for companies to decide to align themselves with the measures of the authorities of that country.
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