7-7-2023 (HANOI) Warner Bros has clarified that a map in its upcoming movie “Barbie” of the South China Sea is a “child-like” drawing with no intended significance, days after Vietnam announced a ban on the film over the map. Vietnam had objected to a scene of the map that showed China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea. However, Warner Bros believed that the map was harmless and the doodles depicted Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. The studio said in a statement that it was not intended to make any type of statement.
The movie was scheduled to open in Vietnam on July 21, the same date as in the United States, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper. However, Vietnamese authorities banned domestic distribution of the highly anticipated film, citing a scene showing a map that included the so-called nine-dash line. The U-shaped line is used on Chinese maps to illustrate China’s claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swaths of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.
“We do not grant a license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” said Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.
“Barbie” is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016. China has refused to recognize the ruling.
Vietnam also recently opened an investigation into the website of K-pop group Blackpink’s tour organizer, ahead of the group’s concert in Hanoi, over criticism from fans that it shows a map of the South China Sea with disputed boundaries.
