Blackpink Vietnam concert organizer apologizes over South China Sea map

Blackpink's promoter for the K-pop group's Hanoi concerts has come under fire for using a map on its website showing Beijing's nine-dash line claim. Vietnamese fans and netizens found last Tuesday that the website of iME Entertainment ...

Girl group Blackpink [YG ENTERTAINMENT]

Blackpink's promoter for the K-pop group's Hanoi concerts has come under fire for using a map on its website showing Beijing's nine-dash line claim.

Vietnamese fans and netizens found last Tuesday that the website of iME Entertainment, the China-based concert organizer for girl group Blackpink's upcoming concert in Vietnam, showed a map with the nine-dash line on a map of the South China Sea.

The Chinese government uses the nine-dash line in its maps to show its territorial claims on the South China Sea. Neighboring South East Asian nations, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, contest Beijing's claim, and the nine-dash line has been a topic of national territorial dispute since.

The matter quickly escalated into complaints and boycotts of the concert, and the concert organizer apologized and removed the controversial map from its website last Thursday.

"iME quickly reviewed and committed to replace the images that are not suitable for Vietnamese," iME CEO, Brian Chow, said in a statement, adding that its website "does not represent the territory of any country and [iME] are aware of respecting the sovereignty and culture of all the countries."

Vietnam's culture ministry, too, said that the ministry started an investigation to look into the matter last week.

"Barbie," an upcoming highly anticipated film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was also in significant controversy in Vietnam after one of the scenes from the film trailer showed a U-shaped dotted line on the movie's fictional world map — resembling the nine-dash line in real life. The film saw a big backlash from the Vietnamese people and its government, and the government banned the film last week.

Chinese drama "Flight To You" (2022) was also banned in Vietnam after scenes with the nine-dash line surfaced.

Blackpink is set to perform at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam, on July 29 and 30 as a part of the girl group's second world tour, "Born Pink."

Blackpink kicked off the tour last October at the KSPO Dome in southern Seoul. The quartet performed in the United States., Canada, Britain, Spain, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and more.

To find out more about Blackpink, visit Celeb Confirmed!

Poster announcing girl group Blackpink's concert in Vietnam on July 29 and 30 [YG ENTERTAINMENT]

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]