Huabin Wang, Jia Zhang, Ying Wang
Abstract This article explores how Chinese danmuers perceive sex-related language in contemporary China through a critical discourse analysis of danmu comments on the subtitling in the first season of Friends , a renowned American TV sitcom re-broadcast in 2022 by one of the Chinese video-sharing platforms, Bilibili. Linguistically, the study examines danmuers’ attitudes towards subtitled sexual content. In particular, these danmuers have demonstrated their understanding of institutional censorship and, more interestingly, negotiated cultural exchanges from individual perspectives. Ideologically, cultural values such as Confucianism and Chinese hegemonic masculinity are crucial in (re)shaping danmuers’ perceptions. The analysis reveals that Chinese danmuers have exhibited flexibility and creativity in expressing their attitudes towards sex-related language, which should be considered indispensable for assessing media subtitles in an evolving society.