The Barbie movie won’t make it to Vietnam’s silver screens, apparently due to a scene starring the nine-dot line map that depicts China’s claims to disputed waters in the South China sea.
Once again, it all comes down to the nine-dash-line
The Barbie movie won’t make it to Vietnam’s silver screens, apparently due to a scene starring the nine-dot line map that depicts China’s claims to disputed waters in the South China sea.
The Warner Bros. film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling was due for release in the country on July 21, the same date as the US. According to local news website VnExpress, the announcement came on Monday (July 3) from Vi Kien Thanh, the head of the Vietnam cinema department at the ministry of culture, sports, and tourism, who attributed the decision to the National Film Evaluation Council.
Maps featuring the U-shaped vague and broken line through the South China Sea was declared unusable by an international tribunal in 2016. Several governments, including Taiwan, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, claim stake in the disputed waters. Beijing rejected ruling.
The Greta Gerwig-directed movie isn’t the first to fall foul of regulators because of the map. Quartz reached out to Warner Bros. for comment.
1947: The nine-dash line appears for the first time on a map created by the Kuomintang Party, which ruled China at that time.
July 2016: The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague rules the nine-dash demarcation could not be used by Beijing to stake claim to parts of the South China Sea which are claimed by several other governments including Taiwan, Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) refused to acknowledge or accept the verdict from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.
September 2018: Romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians releases in Vietnam after a few snips. One removed scene featured a designer bag with a map of the world that appeared to show the disputed area under Beijing’s control.
October 2019: Vietnam pulls animated film Abominable, made by DreamWorks Animation and China-based Pearl Studio, from theatres over depiction of the illegal map. It ran for a week before being removed.
June 2021: Netflix $NFLX removes the Australian spy drama Pine Gap $GPS from its Vietnamese Netflix offerings at the behest of the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications’ Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI), who take objection to the nine-dash map variant being shown in the series.
November 2021: The Phillipine government called upon Netflix to remove episodes of Pine Gap for “violating Philippine sovereignty” by showcasing the contentious map, and Netflix heeded.
March 2022: Tom Holland-starrer Uncharted is banned in Vietnam for featuring maps with the controversial nine-dash line too.
170 million Vietnamese Dong ($7,400): How much Vietnam fined distributor CJ CGV for showing the animated movie Abominable, which also featured the illegal map, in 2019.
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