Life in plastic, it’s fantastic, especially in the Barbie world – except for Vietnam and now the Philippines. On Monday, authorities in Vietnam nation prohibited screenings of the Warner Bros.’ Barbie movie this summer, and just a day later, the Philippines also announced it would consider banning the film as well.
At issue is that a scene in the film includes a map with the “nine-dash line” – a set of line segments that assert China’s territorial claim to the South China Sea. Though it would seem to be minor in the context of a film based on the fashion doll, both Hanoi and Manila are taking it very seriously.
“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,” wrote the Vietnamese state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre.
“If the invalidated 9-dash line was indeed depicted in the movie ‘Barbie,’ then it is incumbent upon the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to ban the same as it denigrates Philippine sovereignty,” said Philippines Senator Francis Tolentino, vice chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, according to local media reports.
Last year, the film Uncharted was also banned in the Philippines for similar reasons.
Beijing’s Reaction to the Barbie Movie
China has dismissed the anger over the film and suggested the movie shouldn’t be linked to normal cultural exchange.
“China’s position on the South China Sea issue is clear and consistent,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters.
The “nine-dash line” represents China’s claim to a vast section of the South China Sea, including those that are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Taiwan. However, an international tribunal at The Hague had found the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) map illegal – a ruling that Beijing has dismissed.
There was originally a U-shaped eleven-dash line that was first published by the Republic of China’s (ROC’s) government in December 1947. That government was defeated by the Communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and subsequently fled to Taiwan. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), which is now ruled by the CCP, removed two of the dashes around the Gulf of Tonkin.
It is also worth noting that the phrase “nine-dash line” is now used commonly outside of China, yet, the words rarely appear in any official Chinese media.
Chinese Film Bans
This is hardly the first time there has been controversy with a summer blockbuster and China. Three years before Top Gun: Maverick finally hit the big screen last summer, it was already the subject of controversy after its star Tom Cruise was spotted in an early trailer wearing a two jacket patches that featured random symbols – instead of the Japanese and Taiwanese flags that were present when the title character first wore the same jacket way back in 1986 in the original Top Gun.
It was speculated at the time that Tencent Pictures, which co-financed the film, required the changes to be made to appease censors in China.
The flags were later restored by the time the film was released last year after the Chinese-based production company withdrew from the project. However, Top Gun: Maverick was never officially released in China. That didn’t seem to hurt the film at the international box office as it made just shy of $1.5 billion, the most of any film from last year.
Though Beijing sees no problem with this summer’s Barbie, a number of high-profile Western films have been banned in China in recent decades, including Seven Years in Tibet, Red Corner, and Kundun, all released in 1997; and more recently Deadpool, and Suicide Squad, both from 2016.
History of Big Screen Bans
Over the past century, a number of high profile films such as 1959’s Ben-Hur, 2017’s Wonder Woman, and 2022’s Lightyear all faced bans in various nations.
In fact, one of the earliest bans was actually the 1925 Soviet-made film Battleship Potemkin, which the French government refused to allow to be screened until the late 1950s due to fears that it could inspire revolution! The film was likewise banned in Spain during the rule of Francisco Franco out of similar fears.
Of course, some American cities and states have had film bans, beginning with The Birth of a Nation (1915) for its racist content; while Hillary: The Movie – a political documentary about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – was prevented by the Federal Election Commission from being aired on video-on-demand before the 2008 Democratic primaries as an “electioneering communication.”
However, that ban, and the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, was overturned by the Supreme Court.
