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迪士尼近日宣布，其真人版电影美女与野兽将不会按照马来西亚审查委员会的要求，对影片内的涉及同性恋情节进行删节，并决定将该片撤出该国电影院——凸显出跨国公司正越来越多地与亚洲保守的反同性恋态度发生冲突。
测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：
homosexuality同性恋['hɒməʊ,seksjʊ'ælətɪ]
artistic integrity艺术良知
portray描绘；扮演[pɔː'treɪ]
rigorously严厉地；残酷地['rigərəsli]
congregation集会；集合；圣会[kɒŋgrɪ'geɪʃ(ə)n]
assertive肯定的；独断的；坚定而自信的[ə'sɜːtɪv]
emoticon表情符号，表情图示[ɪ'məʊtɪkɒn]
villain坏人，恶棍；戏剧、小说中的反派角色；顽童；罪犯['vɪlən]
阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。
Walt Disney has pulled Beauty and the Beast from cinemas in Malaysia in a stand-off with authorities that underlines how multinationals are increasingly coming into conflict with conservative hostility to homosexuality in Asia.
Malaysia’s film censorship board said the film had been approved following a cut to remove a so-called“gay moment”. However,Disney said in a statement that“the film has not been and will not be cut for Malaysia.”
The decision to withdraw the film rather than submit to censorship comes amid a growing determination on the part of multinationals to resist illiberal rules in the markets in which they operate.
“They are showing that they believe in artistic integrity,”said Eugene Tan,associate professor at Singapore Management University.“They will know what the consequences are,and will have done their calculations.”
The live-action adaptation of the 1991 animated musical is the first Disney film to feature a gay character. It includes a brief scene in which LeFou,played by Josh Gad,dances with another man.
The commercial consequences for Disney will be slight,given the size of the Malaysian box office. However,the stand-off is the latest sign of mounting tension between Southeast Asia’s increasingly vocal gay community and religious conservatives,with multinationals caught in the crossfire.
Both Malaysia and Singapore ban sex between men and censor media content that portrays homosexuality in a positive light.
The guidelines are rigorously enforced. Last year,producers staging the musical Les Miserables in Singapore cut a scene in which two men kiss,after being warned it might affect the show’s rating.
Beauty and the Beast has been approved for release in Singapore but the city-state’s Anglican bishop warned clergy last week to alert congregations to its“homosexual content”.
“Disney films for children’s entertainment are usually associated with wholesome,mainstream values,”Rennis Ponniah,bishop of Singapore,said in a statement.“But times are changing at a foundational level.”
Mr Tan of Singapore Management University believes the incident is part of a growing trend.
“You see the gay community asserting itself in Southeast Asia,and in turn,there is a pushback,”he said.“Multinationals have their own cultural background that they want to honour. Companies are going to face this a lot more often as both groups are becoming more assertive.”
Singapore last year warned foreign companies against sponsoring an annual gay rights rally,Pink Dot,which draws support from global banks and tech companies including Goldman Sachs and Twitter.
Google has said publicly that it wants to sponsor the event again this year,and will apply to the government for a permit under new regulations restricting foreign involvement in Singaporean public speaking events.
Indonesia has pressed social networks to take down emoticons featuring same-sex couples. Gay sex is not illegal in Indonesia but authorities feared stirring unrest“especially in relation to the religious and cultural norms in Indonesia”.
Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon said in an interview with Attitude,a British magazine,that the manservant LeFou has affectionate feelings for the main villain,Gaston.
“And that’s what has its pay-off at the end,which I don’t want to give away. But it is a nice,exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie,”Mr Condon said.
Mr Condon,who is gay,said the curse that transforms the hero into a beast was intended as a metaphor for Aids by the first film’s lyricist Howard Ashman,who died of the condition in 1991.
In Russia,where a recently enacted law prohibits“promoting homosexuality to minors”,Beauty and the Beast was approved for screening this month but with an age rating of 16 and above.
请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：
A.Malaysia is a relatively small market for Disney
B.Some part of the film has to be cut in order to get approved
C.The film contains discrimination against Malaysians
D.The film was not welcomed by Malaysians
答案 (1)
A.Singapore
B.Japan
C.Korea
D.China
答案 (2)
A.Yahoo
B.Google
C.Twitter
D.Goldman Sachs
答案 (3)
A.He believed it was a nice,exclusively gay moment
B.He was shocked by it
C.He think it was not necessary
D.He was very disappointed
答案 (4)
(1) 答案：B.Some part of the film has to be cut in order to get approved解释：迪士尼决定不在马来西亚上映美女与野兽是因为影片中所包含的涉及同性恋的片段在接受马来西亚的审查时，被要求必须去除这些情节才能上映，而迪士尼表示不会因为马来西亚政府的要求而删除这些情节，于是不在当地上映该电影。
(2) 答案：A.Singapore解释：除了马来西亚之外，新加坡也颁布了禁止了男性性行为的禁令。
(3) 答案：B.Google解释：Twitter和Goldman Sachs是Pink Dot的支持者，但谷歌今年公开地表示想要再次赞助这一同性恋集会活动的意愿。
(4) 答案：A.He believed it was a nice,exclusively gay moment解释：在接受英国媒体的采访时比尔·康顿（影片导演）表示，对于美女与野兽电影中的同性恋情节，他觉得是迪士尼电影中极为罕见而珍贵的片段，对于这样的情节他是不愿意因审查而删除的。