'Friends' pulled out of China, fans heartbroken

Chinese fans of the popular sitcom "Friends" are expressing angst and have been left heartbroken after the Emmy-award winning American show was pulled out of a video website. 

Sohu, which streamed the show since 2014 suddenly pulled out the 10 season-long TV show in April due to "Copyright issues," reports said. 

Die-hard fans of the sitcom in China have been outraged and even taken to social media with the Twitter-like counterpart called Weibo using the hashtag "Friends offline," generating millions of posts. 

A number of people have also suggested ways to get the series back on by downloading pirated episodes - also enlisting different portals to get them from - while other simply told Sohu to re-up its "Friends" rights. 

The massively loved show had originally aired from 1994-2014 has won over 60 awards including one Golden Globe. The show gained huge popularity in China from pirated DVDs and illegal downloads before getting streaming rights. 

Some English training courses in China even assign the show as teaching material and for learning American culture. 

Also, Warner Bros, the show's producer, recently acquired the Central Perk copyright, causing speculation it may build its own cafes.