Friends in China 20 years on

Two decades ago, costume and kung fu dramas dominated China's TV screens and the United States was still an "alien country" despite 16 years of opening up.

So when Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross became a global phenomenon in Friends in 1994, Chinese people were largely unaware of the sitcom that followed the lives and loves of six young New Yorkers.

Two decades later, the "alien country" has attracted more than 2 million Chinese immigrants, and its most-watched sitcom - which notched up 236 episodes with its tenth and final season in 2004 - has a massive Chinese following.

It has drawn 420 million hits online and an army of fans who can recite the scripts by heart - even more since 2012 when major video websites gave it Chinese subtitles.

And the 20th anniversary of the series is creating a whole new generation of fans. A special web page on tv.sohu.com - "20 years: Friends" - invited viewers to post their favorite lines. Articles titled "20 classic clips of Friends" and "Where are the six friends now?" are popular on the WeChat messaging service.

CHANGING VALUES

Friends is far more than a comedy in China. Since the late 1990s, it has been a textbook for students of English. Teachers play episodes without subtitles as a warm-up for comprehension or speaking lessons. In 1998, Taiwan added U.S. slang tips at end of each episode.

"It is good for English learners, who can get fresh and practical language materials for oral training and help them understand the cultural background," said Professor Lyu Hui, of the China Foreign Affairs University.

Liu Chang, began watching Friends addictively when she was a freshman in college four years ago, but she felt uncomfortable when actors talked about sex. "I almost skipped all the sex dialogue."

In 2004, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) considered importing the series, but abandoned the idea after a director conceded that "it talks about sex in every episode, which a Chinese audience would not accept."

Lyu Huayang, an English major graduate, said the sitcom helped her understand U.S. culture. She has vivid images of how Americans dress for Halloween parties or prepare gifts for Christmas, but some subjects she had never encountered before, such as homosexuality, surrogate mothers, and strippers at bachelor parties.

Today, Chinese are more familiar with these topics. Shen Ruoyi, 17, thinks Friends is a very "safe" program and she watches it with her father. "We laugh together, without any problems."