TL;DR – We explore the context behind why the Barbie movie got banned in Vietnam.

Barbie World Map Time –

When you dive into the world of media classification, many odd things can get a movie/show/game banned in a particular country. Pepper Pig could have an episode on Spiders are Friends, which you understandably don’t want to air in Australia. Or Zoolander being banned in Malaysia, which is fair given the country’s depiction. But can a film be banned for a map? Well, yes, as the Barbie Movie has found out today.

This leads us to have a bit of a different Map-It than usual as I combine my twin loves of Pop-Culture and International Relations to explain what has happened. To start with, what happened? Yesterday it was announced by Vi Kiến Thành, head of the Department of Cinema under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, that National Council for Film Appraisal and Classification had banned the Barbie film after a review of the movie [1]. But why could a map get a film banned? Well, can I introduce you to the Nine-Dash Line and Exclusive Economic Zones.