The much-anticipated live-action movie Barbie has been banned in Vietnam over the appearance of a map in the background of one scene allegedly depicting Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, claims disputed by Vietnam and at least seven other countries.
The map in question is purported to show the “nine-dash line,” reflecting a Chinese claim to roughly 80% of all maritime and territorial areas in the South China Sea, a claim flatly rejected by a United Nations Law of the Sea Convention Tribunal in 2016 that ruled unanimously that China’s claim had no basis in international law.
The Vietnamese refer to the “nine-dash-line” as the “cow’s tongue line.”
This is not the first time that moviemakers have gotten in trouble for showing the nine-dash line. In 2019, Vietnam canceled showings of the DreamWorks film Abominable due to a scene depicting the disputed line. Politicians in the Philippines called for a boycott of all DreamWorks releases in protest, and Malaysia ordered the scene removed. The same issue arose with Sony’s movie Uncharted in 2022 where a two-second scene showing the nine-dash line resulted in the movie being banned in the Philippines and Vietnam.
While the concerns over the nine-dash-line should not have come as a surprise to Warner Bros, the producer of the Barbie movie, the image that caused the movie to be banned is sufficiently abstract so as to require some considerable imagination to identify the Chinese territorial claims.
Warner Bros defended the map and suggested in a statement published by Reuters that it carried no significant meaning. “The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing,” the studio said. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement.”
China’s “nine-dash line” demarcation gives it control of most of the South China Sea. https://t.co/7N0S4IJnGW pic.twitter.com/iPNJuaxuLC
— Geopolitical Intelligence Services (@GIS_Reports) August 24, 2016
Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
Movie world has zero regard for the truth, let alone significant global situations. Serves them right.
Craig, it’s so much more than that. Does China control all of that maritime territory? Apparently The United Nations Law of Sea Convention doesn’t think so.