The highly anticipated ‘Barbie’ film generated a lot of buzz — and not always for the right reasons. The film has been banned in Vietnam for allegedly inciting a territorial dispute in the South China Sea in its trailers, and it once potentially faced a ban in the Philippines.
Just before its release, in July 2023, the Barbie movie faced its most serious controversy yet. It caused an international stir because of its depiction of Asian countries in one of its trailers.
As The Independent explains, the trailer of the Barbie movie shows a map that demarcates China’s land territories. Strikingly, China in this map includes islands that are under territorial disputes in the South China Sea. the dispute involves nations such as Vietnam, China, and the Philippines, amongst many others.