Vietnam Bans Barbie Movie Over South China Sea Map Controversy

Vietnam has banned commercial screenings of Barbie, the highly-anticipated comedy starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. 

The ban is over a scene depicting a map with the “nine-dash line”, a representation of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty.

The state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on Monday (July 3), Vi Kien Thanh, director of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said the ban was decided by the National Film Evaluation Council.

“We do not grant licence for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the paper reported.

Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is slated to open in Vietnam on July 21.

The controversial “nine-dash line” is used on Chinese maps to demarcate its maritime territory in the South China Sea, where Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have competing claims.

China’s claims were rejected by an arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016; China refuses to recognise the ruling.

This is not the first time a Hollywood movie is mired in geopolitical tensions.

DreamWorks’ animated feature Abominable was pulled from Vietnam and Malaysia in 2019, over the use of the nine-dash line in maps.

Three years later, Tom Holland’s Uncharted was outlawed in Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia for the same reason. 

Vietnam is the first to bar Barbie. Will the other countries follow suit?

Barbie opens in Singapore cinemas on July 20.

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos