Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire

I woke this morning to find a copy of the NYT at the door - unusual in San Francisco where you normally get a wheelbarrow load of state and local papers. Mainly full of advertising. Anyway, the NYT carried an article about how the Chinese, impatient for the release of the final volume of Harry Potter, have been writing their own endings and circulating and publishing them. And of course they have been up to their usual tricks - scanning and copying and printing their own copies of the originals.

But what caught my eye were the titles of complete books they have been working up on their own. Their titles are so perfectly Chinese and make me laugh (its funny whilever they are illegally reproducing someone elses material I guess). Some of the basis of that humour lies in the fact that this is no attempt on the part of the Chinese to create humour - these are titles produced in earnest good faith. They include:

• Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Relative Prince
• Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon
• Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire
• Harry Potter and the Young Heroes
• Harry Potter and the Showdown
• Harry Potter and the Big Funnel
• Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll
• Harry Potter and the Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon (my favourite)

Chinese titles can be the source of humour in themselves (this blog is an example) but these Potter titles only underscore how different China can be! That of course is a large part of its appeal. The online version of that NYT article by the way can be found here.