Vietnam bans the 'Barbie' movie over map scene

Vietnam is withdrawing from the Barbie World.

The upcoming "Barbie" movie from Warner Bros. has been banned in Vietnam due to a scene with a map showing territory in the South China Sea that China has unilaterally claimed, Reuters reports. Chinese maps use the "nine-dash line" to show this disputed territory. In 2016, a Hague international tribunal ruled that China has no legal basis behind its claim to the area, which Vietnam has contested.

"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," Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema in Vietnam, reportedly said.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Starring Margot Robbie, "Barbie" is expected to be one of the biggest movies of the summer, and it was scheduled to be released in Vietnam on July 21, when it also hits theaters in the United States. But it's not the first movie to face a ban in Vietnam for this same reason. In 2022, the Tom Holland action film "Uncharted" was also banned in Vietnam because a map "contained an illegal image of the infamous nine-dash line," Vi Kien Thanh reportedly said.

The animated movie "Abominable" was also pulled in Vietnam over a scene showing the "nine dash line" on a map in 2019, as was the show "Pine Gap" in 2021. "Netflix's violations angered and hurt the feelings of the entire people of Vietnam," the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information said at the time.