"Squid Game" fever sweeps China despite the ban on "Netflix"
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From sub-products to candy, through piracy... Squid game fever that has been invading the world for weeks has reached China, where the ban on "Netflix" did not prevent the South Korean series from achieving great popularity, thanks to illegal streaming sites.
The nine-episode series, known in Arabic as "The Squid Game", depicts hundreds of characters participating in a children's game competition, in which the winner wins 45.6 billion won ($38.5 million), while all the losers are killed.
Residents of China are unable to watch “Netflix” due to its ban by the authorities.
But even if the giant American platform were available in the country, "Squid Game" would undoubtedly have had great difficulty escaping the scissors of Chinese censorship due to the extreme violence in its scenes.
As with many other foreign productions, easy-to-access Chinese websites allow the series to be viewed (illegally) by streaming, which has contributed to the growing success of operating in the country.
For a few weeks now, "Squid Game" has been igniting discussions on social networks, especially among Chinese youth who are so enamored of new technologies that South Korean work has become a phenomenon.
And in Shanghai, people flock to take pictures in front of a new shop that sells the crunchy "dalgona" cake made famous by "Squid Game" as it occupies a central position in a challenge facing the participants.
One of the shop's customers says, "I've seen such candy before on the Internet, but it's the first time I've actually seen it in front of me."
A producer working in the audio-visual field who came to the store to buy the "dalgona" explains that "the pace of the series is fast and the knot is breathtaking."
"The Squid Game" is a hit in more than 80 countries thanks to its elaborate production, and it is on the cusp of becoming the most popular series in the history of "Netflix".
Chinese merchants, always ready to spot new trends, succeeded in riding the wave to satisfy the increasing demand for products related to the series locally and globally.
On the giant e-commerce platform Taobao, they offer a variety of collateral products, including floral hoodies and masks of the Squid Game's anonymous guards.
Peng Xiuang told AFP that sales of his online store rose by 30% thanks to the demand from the series.
He hadn't heard of Squid Game, until a customer came to him last month asking if he sold the series' famous black mask, decorated with squares, triangles or circles.
"Our customers are people who have seen the show and want to ride the wave," Bing explains.
Illegal streaming platforms have become so widespread that South Korean Ambassador to China Jang Ha-sung himself said he had told a South Korean parliamentary committee that he had asked the Chinese authorities to intervene.
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