Margot Robbie, who plays the titular character, at the world premiere of Barbie. July 9, 2023, at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Credit: Chris Pizzello via AP Photos
In this summer’s most eagerly-anticipated blockbuster, Barbie, the eponymous heroine and her beau Ken travel from their homes in Barbie Land to the human realm. In a surprising twist, the movie’s pink-hued plastic protagonists have created a real-world geopolitical controversy along the way.
An image from the movie’s trailer shows Margot Robbie, playing Barbie, standing in front of a world map on which two curved broken lines are drawn next to a land mass labeled ‘Asia’. Those markings have alarmed viewers in Southeast Asia, who see them as representing the so-called ‘nine-dash line’ — a visual shorthand for Beijing’s heavily disputed claims over territory across the South China Sea.
That alarm has provoked a response in countries concerned about China’s ambitions: in 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague unanimously rejected the nine-dash line map, declaring Beijing’s claims illegal. Vietnam’s cinema regulator has banned Barbie
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