The simpsons
Photo: CRB. All rights reserved.
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A “Simpsons” episode from the series’ 34th season is reportedly no longer available through Disney+’s Hong Kong offering. The episode is titled “One Angry Lisa” and features, among other things, Marge, the mother of the Springfield family, during a fitness class on a spinning bike. A trainer personally accompanies your workout via a monitor integrated into the sports equipment. The Great Wall of China can be seen in the background of his video feed. On the occasion of the virtual stay at this place, he remarks: “Here you see the great wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where kids make smartphones, and romance.”
The reason for the blocking is precisely this reference to forced labor. She refers to media allegations and investigations by the United Nations, according to which the Chinese government operates torture, labor and re-education camps in the province of Xinjiang in the north-east of the country. In them, members of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in the country, are said to be abused and exploited. Apple and VW, among others, are said to benefit from this forced labor. China denies exploiting the Uyghurs.
It’s not the first “Simpsons” episode to be banned in Hong Kong. An episode from the 16th season of the series, in which the family travels to Beijing and walks across Tiananmen Square, had already disappeared in 2021. A sign can be seen in the background: “Nothing happened here”. The series alluded to China’s censorship policy. The government is accused of suppressing and altering the memory of the 1989 protests by the pro-democracy movement and the massacre on this square.
China and Hong Kong
After protests over restrictions on civil liberties in the Hong Kong SAR began in 2019, the Chinese government passed laws in 2020 and 2021 that allow it to block media content there that would be subversive to the government in Beijing. These encroachments on Hong Kong’s legal order have drawn much criticism of the government in recent years. In doing so, it violates, among other things, the “One country. Two systems” principle, according to which the special position of Hong Kong (and Macao) should be preserved. It comes from the contract for the handover of Hong Kong to Beijing by Great Britain, whose colony the metropolis was until 1997.
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