Barbie banned in Vietnam over South China Sea map

Authorities prohibit commercial screenings of the movie starring Australian actor Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling over a scene that features a map displaying the ‘nine dash line’.

Vietnam authorities have decided to prohibit commercial screenings of highly-anticipated Barbie movie, over depictions of the the contentious nine-dash line.

The highly anticipated Warner Bros. film Barbie, starring Australian actor Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been met with an unexpected ban in Vietnam.

The country’s authorities have decided to prohibit commercial screenings of the movie, which was originally scheduled for release on July 21, over a scene in the film that features a map displaying the “nine dash line,” a symbolic representation of China’s territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.

The region has been a subject of longstanding territorial disputes between Vietnam and China, both claiming overlapping rights to the area. The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration confirmed in 2016 that China’s “nine dash line” claim over the South China Sea had no basis under international law.

This demarcation was originally established by the deposed Kuomintang regimen in 1947, encompassing a sea abundant in valuable energy, mineral, and fishing resources, and serving as a crucial passage for one-third of global shipping.

Barbie director Greta Gerwig and producer Margot Robbie pose for a photo on the pink carpet at the MCA Foundation Hall in Sydney. Picture: Monique Harmer

Vietnam has repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of encroaching upon its sovereignty in the South China Sea.

The decision to ban Barbie was announced by Vi Kien Thanh, the director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and tourism.

According to the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper, the National Film Evaluation Council was responsible for reaching this verdict: “We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the report read.

The prohibition of Barbie is not an isolated incident, as previous instances of similar territorial depictions have caused problems for other films and TV series in Vietnam. DreamWorks’ 2019 animated film Abominable faced a ban for featuring the contested map, and Sony’s Uncharted suffered a similar fate the following year.

The DreamWorks animated film Abominable, was pulled from Vietnam theatres after just a week.

Moreover, the Vietnam Cinema Department’s staff faced disciplinary actions for failing to immediately detect the offending images in Abominable, which was pulled from theatres after just over a week.

In response to the ban, some TV series, such as Put Your Head On My Shoulder and Madam Secretary, were directed to delete scenes containing the disputed map in 2020.

And in 2021, Netflix was ordered to pull the Australian spy drama Pine Gap from the Vietnamese market due to its inclusion of the sensitive territorial depiction.