Disney self-censors Simpsons in Hong Kong, ‘bows’ to China on Tiananmen Square

Disney is under fire for pandering to Beijing by removing an episode that ridiculed Chinese censorship on Tiananmen Square.

The Simpsons ‘Goo Goo Gai Pan’ episode.

Disney’s streaming service has been accused of bowing to Beijing by removing from its Hong Kong service an episode of The Simpsons that ridiculed Chinese censorship over Tiananmen Square.

Disney+ began screening the hit US show in Hong Kong this month.

However, it did not feature episode 12 of series 16, Goo Goo Gai Pan, in which the Simpson family travels to Beijing.

There, they visit the embalmed body of Mao Zedong, described by Homer Simpson as a “little angel that killed 50 million people”, and visit Tiananmen Square, where a sign reads: “On this site, in 1989, nothing happened.”

Any reference to the bloody crackdown on students protesting at Tiananmen is outlawed by Beijing. An entire generation in China has grown up without learning about the event.

Later in the episode, Selma, Marge Simpson’s sister, plays a similar role to Tank Man, the unidentified Chinese man who stood in front of a line of tanks rolling down the Avenue of Eternal Peace.

Disney was yet to respond to questions about the removal of the episode last night.

It was unclear whether the studio was asked by the authorities in Hong Kong to cut it.

“Disney obviously sent out a clear signal to the local audience that it will remove controversial programs in order to please,” Grace Leung, an expert in media regulation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told The New York Times.

“Their credibility will definitely be hurt.”

The Times