How Barbie jumped into the conflict between Vietnam and China and was eventually banned

The upcoming movie Barbie has been banned in Vietnam.

And that has nothing to do with the movie’s overuse of pink, or Ryan Gosling’s Ken-doll spray tan (or, self-tan?).

Warner Bros.’ highly-anticipated summer game has crossed the line by drawing a line — the controversial “nine-line line.”

It is the dotted line that China uses to draw its borders in the South China Sea. Vietnam does not agree with this line. Most of the foreign countries are friendly with Vietnam.

It’s a political crisis that director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie probably didn’t want to get into, but here we are. This is why the little dotted line on the map – and the way it appears in the film – is needed in Vietnam and China.

Where does the map appear in the film?

There are several limited maps in the long-awaited Barbie trailer, released in May. The first is one of the fictional Barbie Land – the city appears to be on the edge of the water and at the foot of the mountains, with pink clouds around its heart-shaped borders.

The second map, which Vietnamese entertainment writer Nguyên Lê shared on Twitter, shows the world as we know it.

The map looks like Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, has a problem with it. His rain has started to freeze, he has fallen on his roof and his high heels are gone. At a disco party, she asks out loud, “Do you guys ever think about dying?”

The record stops spinning, and her fellow Barbies and Kens stop dancing and gape.

To answer, Margot turns to another Barbie, played by Kate McKinnon, who seems to live in a tiny pink house, far away from the others.

Inside the building, the audience sees a map of our world, as Margot’s Barbie asks, “What should I do?”

“You should go to the World,” McKinnon’s Barbie replies.

The map of the “real world” looks like it was drawn in crayon by a child. Accompanying the wacky style are the characters of each continent – Africa, Australia, and the most important one in the story you’re reading right now, Asia.

Along the coast of what should be China, there are lines across the ocean on the map.

It is not immediately clear whether these lines refer to the “nine lines”.

Warner Bros. representatives did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Later in the trailer, we see Robbie’s Barbie driving her convertible as she crosses the border of Barbie Land and enters our home.

Sources of nine lines

After World War II, China published a map in the late 1940s, showing a U-shaped line. The original map had 11 lines, but two were added in the 1950s, which are accepted by historians as permission to the communist government of North Vietnam.

The U-shaped area runs 1,200 kilometers south of China and covers 80% of the South China Sea.

The Chinese government has declared all its contents, citing “old rights”. And this includes islands and islands. Some of these places are also claimed by Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

To complicate matters, a large shelf from Vietnam at the bottom of the sea, within the “nine lines” of China.

But the land is the only justification for those who control the water: the South China Sea is one of the busiest fishing and trading areas in the world, and includes untapped oil and gas fields.

In recent years, China has built up its islands by dumping sand in the reefs as a way to get more of the area’s water.

The construction of these islands has caused military conflicts between China and Vietnam, as well as the Philippines.

However, in 2016, the International Court of Justice in The Hague declared that China’s “nine-dash line” is illegal and that China’s construction of islands violates international law.

However, the Chinese government has rejected the decision and maritime disputes, which threaten Vietnam’s fishing power in the region, have continued. Vietnam sees China’s disobedience as a threat to its sovereignty.

Will the Vietnamese audience see Barbie?

Barbie was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on July 21, the same day as the United States, according to Vietnamese government publication Tuổi Trẻ, which was the first to announce the ban on Monday.

The ban was issued by the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which cited the film as “illegal lines” used by China to assert its control over large parts of East Vietnam. Sea,” according to Tuổi Trẻ.

A few hours before the US media, Mr. Lê announced this Sunday evening on Twitter, citing the Vietnamese government’s language regarding the use of the film’s “obscene political images.”

Both Lê ​​and Tuổi Trẻ noted that this was not the first film to be banned in Vietnam for showing maps with “nine lines”.

Dreamworks’ 2019 film Abominable was also banned, along with the 2022 film Uncharted, starring Tom Holland.

The Philippine government called for a boycott of the Abominable group but withdrew the ban.

Although some of the disappointed moviegoers in Vietnam said to look at the difficult map in the film, it is not yet known whether Warner Bros. can or will be willing to change its final form, and whether the Vietnamese government will remove the ban on such conditions.

The government is also considering banning Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” according to Viêt Nam News.

The Universal Pictures period piece was also set for a July 21 release (the inconsistent releases have given rise to the “Barbeinheimer” meme phenomenon).

A spokesman for Vietnam’s film department did not respond to The Times’ request for comment.

It is also unclear how much money Warner Bros. could lose as a result of the ban. The highest grossing film in Vietnam in 2022 was Warner Bros. Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed over US$11,000,000 (NZ$17,750,000), according to IMDb.

Overall, the Avatar sequel grew 10x in the US over the weekend alone.