mobanmarketVietnam has pulled DreamWorks’ animated film ‘Abominable’ from cinemas over a scene featuring a map which shows China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.
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The U-shaped line is a feature used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over vast expanses of the resource-rich South China Sea, including large swathes of what Vietnam regards as its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.
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Last week, sports network ESPN faced criticism of its coverage of a row between the National Basketball Association (NBA) and China after using a map that featured the line.
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China and Vietnam have been locked in a standoff since China dispatched a vessel to conduct an energy survey in waters controlled by Vietnam in early July.
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“We will revoke [the film’s licence],” Ta Quang Dong, deputy minister of culture, sports and tourism, was quoted as saying by the Thanh Nien newspaper.
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The ministry is in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.
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‘Abominable’, about a Chinese girl who discovers a yeti living on her roof, was jointly produced by Shanghai-based Pearl Studio and Comcast-owned DreamWorks Animation and was first shown in Vietnamese cinemas on October 4.
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The film, which was being marketed in Vietnam as ‘Everest: The Little Yeti’ was removed from cinemas on Sunday after images of the scene with the offending map were shared widely on social media.
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A spokeswoman for CJ CGV Vietnam, Vietnam’s largest cinema chain and a unit of South Korea’s CJ CGV, declined to comment.
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A receptionist at the state-run National Cinema Center in Hanoi said the culture ministry had issued an order requiring all cinemas to stop showing the film because of the map scene.
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Calls to Nguyen Thu Ha, the head of the culture ministry’s cinema department, went unanswered on Monday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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At the National Cinema Center in Hanoi, workers could be seen taking down posters for the film late on Monday.
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“I’d planned to watch this film but after having heard about that maritime sovereignty issue, I think I shouldn’t,” Hanoi-based student and cinema fan Phan Thi Nhi Ha said outside the centre.
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In August, police broke up a brief protest outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi over the survey vessel.
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Vietnam has repeatedly accused the vessel and its escorts of violating its sovereignty and has demanded that China remove its ships from the area.
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