Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been in the news for various reasons, but it recently made headlines after getting banned from Vietnam a few days ago. Now the scenic country has banned the popular K-Pop girl band Blackpink from performing there.
As per the reports, Barbie and Blackpink and the Chinese drama Flight To You have been ordered to be banned from Vietnam because the Nine Dash Line shows some islands in the South China Sea as non-Vietnamese territory.
The Barbie film, which was set to be released in Vietnam on July 21, faced a ban after it was revealed that a scene depicted a map including the divisive nine-dash line. As a result, the film will no longer be screened in Vietnam.
Blackpink’s performance was scheduled to take place in the Hanoi region of Vietnam, and the concert organizer, iME, is a Beijing-based firm. The reason for the controversy is that the company’s website includes a map with a nine-dash line. Not just the authorities but also the social media users in the country raised their voices, calling for a boycott of the girl band concert. Following the outrage, iMe issued an apology for the map, and an investigation has been launched by Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture and Information.
For the neighboring countries of China making territorial claims in the South China Sea, the nine-dash line is a very sensitive issue. Including Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines are fighting back against it, which is why Barbie and BLACKPINK are prohibited. According to a representative for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the South Korean girl band’s event turned into a “hot-button issue.”