College freshman Wan Xu from Beijing had no idea he would become
such a popular guy. The 21-year-old is a serious member of HP Fans,
a website set up by people wild about Harry Potter, the teen wizard
who cast a spell across the world.
?
Wan has become a Harry Potter authority and is in constant
demand from reporters, each and every time a book or a new movie is
launched in China. However, before he read the first Harry Potter
book at a friend's home five years ago, he was a shy teenager
obsessed with online chatting and computer technology. Now a
veteran fan of the series, he has finished all the books and films
and is casting a little magic of his own.
Wan negotiated a special deal with the book's Chinese
importer
allowing his friends to receive a 25-percent discount by purchasing
it together.
He and his fellow fans, all donning black cloaks, attended the
opening sale day of the final installment of the Harry Potter
series at the China Foreign Languages Bookstore in Beijing.
He is certainly not alone and many share the passion.
Months before the seventh and final book installment hit the
Chinese market, discussions and articles about the book were
buzzing Chinese websites.
Enthusiasts also appeared on TV talk shows sharing their
stories. When the final Harry Potter book was launched last month,
more than 500 people lined up at 7 AM outside the bookstore. Among
them was a man who bought 100 copies to send to his friends.
It's common to see a teenager on the Beijing or Shanghai subway
buried in the English version of the 700-page book.
It has been seven years since the first Harry Potter book was
introduced to China and millions have grown up with the story.
Eighteen-year-old Wang Chuan's first Harry Potter book was in
Chinese.
She read the Chinese version before turning to the English copy.
But since the third or fourth installment, the English version has
been her first choice.
"Many of my friends have the same transformation in reading
habits," she says. "Our English has been improving."
So why are Chinese readers so wild about J. K. Rowling's little
wizard?
"Harry does not choose to fulfill his commitment; it's the magic
world that chooses him," says Xiao Xiao, 18, a self-confessed
devotee from Beijing.
"But he faces his mission bravely, instead of escaping from it.
Although sometimes he is scared, he never gives up," she says.
Harry could have become another stereotyped prince from a
familiar fairy tale if he was just smart and brave. However,
Rowling knows the make-up of the teenage boy and uses this
knowledge to great success.
Wang Chih-yuan, PhD, at the London School of Economics and
Political Science, appreciates Rowling's thorough understanding of
children. "Harry is not perfect, especially in the third and fourth
installments," he tells China Daily through telephone
interview.
"His adolescent obstinacy and waywardness is so real. Besides,
although everybody believes he is the chosen one, he has many
doubts about himself."
Rowling also gets it right with Hermione and Ron, Harry's two
fictional sidekicks. Hermione also has potential to become another
pretty stereotype. After all, every fairy tale needs a smart and
beautiful princess. But she is no princess, not even an ariscorat.
Although she is outstandingly clever and hardworking, bullies at
the magic school can easily make her cry by teasing her (normal
Muggles) family origin. "But her toughness as a Muggles' offspring
makes me like her so much," says 17-year-old Chen Nanxu from East
China's Jiangsu Province.
"Sometimes you have to be tough, otherwise they will tease you
more. By something you excel in, you can convince them you deserve
respect."
Chen can relate to the character. He is not from a rich family,
but is a top student in class. Teachers like him, and classmates,
as he says, like to ask for his help when they have difficulty in
home assignments.
And as for Ron, his plainness and kind-heart win many fans.
However, even the Harry Potter baddies have their supporters.
Wang Chuan is a high school student who favors the dark
Voldemort than any other character just because he is powerful. To
her, Slytherin is also more appealing.
"Slytherin is filled with power and ambition. But what's wrong
with that?" she says. "It is closer to real life, in which nothing
is absolutely good or evil. Don't you see that every bad role has a
sad past and touching story?"
In Wang Chih-yuan's eyes, the magical world of Harry Potter is
not as remote as many people think.
"Life in Hogwarts resembles a boarding-school life a lot," Wang
says. "And children in the magic school are just like kids all over
the world, always in search for an adventure on their own despite
the adults' supervision."
Wan says Harry Potter has helped him develop a serious reading
habit. Although his favorite genres still focus on fantasy, he can
talk about them with his own understanding.
"The Lord of the Rings is too adult, while Narnia is too focused
on children," he explains. "That's why I think Harry Potter is the
most popular among them."
His association with fans, the negotiation with book traders and
his interviews with journalists, have also greatly improved his
ability and willingness to communicate with others.
And the friendship between Harry and the other two, he says,
convinced him that real friends are precious and deserve more love
than he thought.
Not everybody is a fan.
Some think Harry Potter fever is the sole result of successful
marketing, Hollywood-style promotion in particular.
"Film is easier to be accepted by people from different
cultures," Zhu Lili, associate professor of Nanjing University's
Journalism School, told local media. "The mature Hollywood industry
plays an important role in the story's prevailing."
Some conservative Christian parents in America have argued that
the book promotes witchcraft. In China, where Christianity does not
dominate, there is no such controversy. The frequent appearance of
monsters, ghosts and all kinds of horrible creatures still upsets
many Chinese parents.
"If images in books still need rich imagination to visualize,"
says Chen Yuanyuan, mother of a 5-year-old from Beijing, "the vivid
creatures in the films, such as the spiders, the ghost in the
bathroom and her weird voice, and the serpent, can easily scare the
children."
And Wang Chuan, who used to think Harry Potter is a subversive
story, says she was disappointed with the happy ending.
However, in view of the sharply surging book sales and box
office, the critics are in a minority.
(China Daily August 14, 2007)
