The Los Angeles city government has designated Sept. 17 "Squid Game Day." The photo shows participants at a "Korean Day" event last year on Nov. 6 dressed in costumes from the hit Netflix series as part of last year's Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. (Yonhap News) 

By Xu Aiying

The American city of Los Angeles has designated Sept. 17 "Squid Game Day."

John Lee, a Korean American member of the Los Angeles City Council, on Sept. 7 said the council passed a resolution last week to commemorate the series by designating Sept. 17 "Squid Game Day."

Proposed by Lee, the resolution marks the achievements of the Korean-made blockbuster of promoting Korean culture and traditions in the U.S. and raising Asia-Pacific voices in American entertainment.

Sept. 17 is the day when Netflix released the drama last year. Mentioning how "Squid Game" has received many awards, the resolution said the series "made history" and called it "the first ever Korean series on Netflix to reach number 1 in the U.S., breaking the barrier that many foreign language shows face with western audiences simply because of subtitles."

"Squid Game marks another victory in the fight to grow representation of the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community in film and entertainment, exposing audiences to Korean culture and traditions while paving the way for other AAPI communities to also have their stories told," it added.

To mark the designation, the Los Angeles city government on Sept. 9 will host a declaration ceremony in front of City Hall.

 
xuaiy@korea.kr