In Hong Kong, Disney+ subscribers have observed that one episode of The Simpsons is noticeably missing.
When fans in the city explore the main Disney streaming service, the 16th season of the renowned Fox cartoon programme leaps from episode 11 to episode 13. Homer brings his family to China in episode 12, which was initially shown in 2005, and they visit Tiananmen Square, where they come upon a plaque that reads, “On this place, nothing happened in 1989.”
It appears that the episode has been subjected to the type of censorship that it was meant to mock.
In Mainland China, where any reference of the 1989 murder of pro-democracy student demonstrators has been scrubbed clear of public discourse for decades, censoring of such information would come as no surprise. However, in Hong Kong, the seeming voluntary removal of the episode — particularly when done by a large American media firm — is a very new facet of public life.
The Simpsons also visit the mummified remains of former leader Mao Zedong and stumble upon a row of tanks in Beijing, alluding to the iconic “tank man” photograph taken during the 1989 student movement.
Despite this, Netflix continues to carry various pieces of content that would almost certainly be prohibited from being shown in theatres under the new legislation. Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, filmmaker Joe Piscatella’s documentary on the Hong Kong student activist who became the face of the vast pro-democracy movement that brought the city to a halt in 2014, is still available on Netflix in Hong Kong.
“In Hong Kong, one of the last bulwarks of freedom of expression has vanished. As a result, filmmakers must now evaluate what could violate the new guidelines, and funders and distributors must also face the same question.”
