Warner Bros defends Barbie film's world map as 'childlike'
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Warner Bros believes the map in the Barbie movie is harmless, calling it "a whimsical, childlike crayon drawing".
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LOS ANGELES – Warner Bros studio on Thursday said a map of the South China Sea in its upcoming Barbie movie
Vietnam baulked at a scene of the map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea
It decided to ban domestic distribution of the highly anticipated film
Warner Bros believes the map is harmless.
“The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, childlike crayon drawing,” the studio said in a statement. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement.”
Barbie was originally slated to open in Vietnam on July 21, the same date as in the United States, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.
The Vietnamese authorities objected to a scene showing a map that includes the so-called nine-dash line, the newspaper said.
The U-shaped line is used on Chinese maps to illustrate China’s claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.
“We do not grant licence for the American movie Barbie to be released in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the newspaper reported, citing Mr Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licencing and censoring foreign films.
Barbie is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016
This week, Vietnam also opened an investigation into the website of K-pop group Blackpink’s tour organiser
