Why would it be newsworthy for any of the Guardian’s readers to know that Vietnam bAnNeD a Barbie movie? this is an ad, it’s not journalism.
Why would a movie about Barbie recognize disputed Chinese territorial borders in the first place?
If this was an ad for the movie, it would probably (hopefully) been more efficient on a western audience had it not recognized illegal borders.
We already know China is obsessed with representations like this - hence the huge fuzz about the flag of Taiwan appearing in Top Gun, to name one example. We also know the movie industry is terrified of upsetting China, as it’s a key demographic and money cow.
So it’s a bit suspicious when completely unnecessary elements like the recognition of China’s contested sea borders are included in a movie where they have no good reason to appear in the first place. It would be cool if the movie industry wasn’t afraid of pissing off the CCP, but the least we could ask for is for them no to spread their propaganda.
Girl power.
But also power to the genocidal authoritarian state of China.
We have gay characters! We are good people and very progressive.
Gotta appeal to China somehow to enter their market to get all that money.
“We do not grant licence for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,”
I think the article is saying that the movie is actually displaying China’s unilaterally claimed line and Vietnam is banning it for doing so. i.e. against China’s wishes right?
edit: Oh, I misred cyborganism’s comment. I thought he was saying Vietnam was trying to enter China’s market.
The comment was saying that the movie included the nine dash line to allow it access to the Chinese market. Had they not included it, they might have had their film banned in China.
Edit: swipe keyboard mistake
What about this reads as against China’s wishes? They love having their territorial claims recognized.
Oh bugger.
In what world does the Barbie movie have a plot that requires a map showing territorial waters of the South China Sea? Even if she was traveling the world this specific part of a map seems like it’s zero value added.
It’s pandering to the larger market.
I haven’t seen this movie, but in both Uncharted and Abominable it is a normal map but with imaginary dashes in the South China Sea. They know Americans won’t care.
In Uncharted it is during one of those airplane scenes like they have in Indiana Jones.
zero value for you. lots of $value for someone trying to sell a movie in China. it also works here, look at us pushing the bait to the top of the active feed and help let everyone know, that there’s a new Barbie movie. oh and it’s making hUgE waves globally, look they banned it. it’s troll marketing and the guardian is just feeding people ads.
Yeah. That’s my biggest question, too. I don’t care about Vietnam banning a movie, but I wonder how and why the South China Sea figures into things. Is the map only onscreen for a second or two, or are we talking about a significant plot point?
Also, how did they feel about the travel poster that said “Surf Vietnam” in Back to the Future II? Five minutes ago, I would have thought that was an asinine question, but now I seriously wonder.
