While the cast and the director have been promoting Barbie all over the world, there is bad news for the Warner team. Less than a month until Barbie hits cinemas worldwide news of the film being banned in a country like Vietnam takes fans by surprise wondering what is it about the film that caused such harsh measures in the Asian country.
Apparently, Vietnam has decided to ban the domestic distribution of the film for a very particular reason that has nothing to do with the plot of the movie nor the themes it deals with. The reason is a map that appears in the film which shows a disputed territory in the South China Sea known as the “nine-dash line” claimed by China.
What Is the Nine-Dash Line?
The nine-dash line is a set of lines that appear on several maps that indicate the territorial claims of Mainland China (People’s Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China). These territories are located in the South China Sea and although they don’t really mean that these territories belong to China, the lines imply that they are claiming said territories.
Now, as for Vietnam, part of the territories that appear as claimed in the nine-dash line was ruled in their favor by a court in The Hague in 2016, but China refuses to honor this international ruling, so many maps still count this part of Vietnam’s continental shelf as a claimed territory by China. Naturally, beyond the geographical outlining, this territory has financial implications as it has important oil concessions.
The Banning of Barbie and Other Films
Barbie was set to premiere in Vietnam on July 21, as it will happen all over the world. Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, declared that “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.” This department is the government body in charge of granting licenses and censoring international films.
Barbie isn’t the only Hollywood production to be banned in Vietnam for that same reason. In 2019 DreamWork’s Abominable, 2021 Pine Gap, and later in 2022 Tom Holland’s Uncharted were pulled into the country for showing a map with the nine-dash lines.
One might think that it’s a simple map and that productions might not even consider taking the time to analyze each part of its elements before putting it on screen. Most likely, these maps appear only for some seconds, but this is a persistent issue that should be taken into account by production teams.
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