Although not available in China, the Netflix series "The Squid Game" It is all the rage in this country where many followers bypass the controls to unload it illegally and rush to buy products related to production such as their peculiar costumes.
The dystopian South Korean series has become the most popular launch in the history of the US platform, but it will hardly win the approval of Chinese censors for its violent content.
That has not been inconvenient to build a legion of followers in cities like Shanghai, where crowds gather daily at a store that sells ‘dalgona’, a South Korean sweet that appeared in the series.
"People started sending production-related jokes in group conversations when I started watching."a client surnamed Li told AFP. "It’s fast-paced and therefore quite exciting", said.
After buying the candy, Li and his friend filmed themselves emulating a challenge from the series in which the characters must cut out shapes on the candy without breaking it.
"The Squid Game" centers on a group of outcast and indebted characters who enter a children’s game contest to win 45 million won ($ 38 million, € 33 million). If they are eliminated, they pay for it with their lives.
The always astute Chinese manufacturers did not miss the opportunity and launched into producing costumes and masks of the series that are beginning to flood the country’s digital commerce platforms.
Trader Peng Xiuyang told AFP that his sales grew 30% after putting products of the series on sale.
She didn’t know anything about her until a customer asked her if she sold the black masks worn by the security guards at the deadly contest.
Chinese audiences have managed to bypass internet controls and watch the series, especially through easily accessible illegal download pages.
"Our estimate is that ‘The Squid Game’, which is gaining global popularity, is being illegally distributed on some 60 pages in China."said South Korean Ambassador to China Jang Ha-sung at a recent parliamentary hearing.
Proof that the phenomenon also reached the Asian giant, the label "The Squid Game" It has reached almost 2 billion views on social media.
In these comments, users comment on how they would overcome the challenges posed in the plot and wonder what a Chinese version of the series would look like.
"It would not pass the censorship if we made a production like this … If it was too violent, it would be withdrawn"said a netizen.
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