Posted on 01/25/2016 10:51:11 PM PST by Citizen Zed
The most controversial episode, as far as China is concerned, is one in season 16, where the Simpsons fly to China to help a relative adopt a baby.
This involves the family passing through Tiananmen Square, where they see signs saying: "On this site, in 1989, nothing happened", and later encounter a tank - both references to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.
Homer also makes fun of Mao Zedong's embalmed body - whom he likens to "a little angel who killed 50 million people" and poses as a Buddha to enter an orphanage.
China's authorities were also unlikely to be amused at the show's portrayal of Tibet Town, an area in Chinatown surrounded by barbed wire, or the fact that Lisa Simpson is also known as a supporter of the Free Tibet movement.
...
A thread on Zhihu, a Chinese Q&A forum, asked why The Simpsons hadn't taken off in China. They also wonder if the Chinese audience just doesn't get the American screwball sense of humour.
One user said: "Most people in China think the Simpsons isn't cool enough - it doesn't have any good looking characters... people would rather watch the latest Chinese productions ...but everyone's talking about them on social media."
Others pointed out many Chinese viewers would have been offended by the controversial episodes. For many, the Simpsons' brand of satire is simply lost in translation due to both cultural differences, and censorship.
"I didn't understand a lot of the sarcasm until an American friend explained it to me..." another user wrote.
Despite this, there are efforts to increase the Simpsons' following in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Are the Flintstones popular in China?
How about Seinfeld?
Both are long running prime time series.
Simpsons is still on but I stopped watching almost a decade ago (tuned out on tv in 2008, still watch movies and a rare series via netflix).
Dictators tend not to find this sort of thing amusing.
Unless you’re some kind of maturity snob, you laughed your ass off when you saw that bit of his.
I read that most Chinamen do not even know that something happened in 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
They simply have no knowledge of the events.
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