Harry Potter - Cho Chang

[iris]

Scottish-Asian Girl to Play Cho Chang in Harry Potter

'Scots girl to play Potter's Cho'

The girl who Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe will eventually get to kiss has been revealed by a newspaper to be a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Glasgow.
Katie Leung beat more than 4,000 hopeful girls who queued for hours at open auditions in February.

The Mirror newspaper said a Potter film insider told them she is "absolutely perfect" to play Harry's girl.

Filming on Potter 4, The Goblet of Fire, was due to start last week at Leavesden Studios.

We auditioned some of the audition hopefuls. Click here to find out what happened!
Warner Bros had not officially revealed who would be playing Cho yet.

Rumours about the Ravenclaw seeker, who Harry fancies in Prisoner of Azkaban, had been flying around the internet for a long time though.

Also thought to have been in running for the sought-after role was Neighbours actress Michelle Ang.

The Potter insider who spoke to The Mirror said Katie was "pretty and bright" and that she had a "glittering career ahead of her".

Although she appears in book 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban, it was decided Cho would not actually be in the films until GoF.

Harry finally plucks up the courage to ask Cho to the Yule Ball in GoF. She turns him down because she's seeing Cedric Diggory.

Scottish family

Daniel Radcliffe said way back in 2002 that he was excited about seeing who would be playing his Cho, but said he would not get to help decide who played her.

Katie goes to a private college in Scotland and lives with her dad, two brothers and a younger sister, reports the Mirror.

Her dad was born in Hong Kong, but moved to Edinburgh, where JK lives, years ago.

The family now live in Motherwell, near Glasgow.

[TB4000]

Yeah, I heard...and they just cast Ralph Fiennes yesterday as Voldemort...this flick is gonna be crowded as all hell.

[rice cracker]

16 years old and in college?


Oooh, sexy sexy Voldemort. *purrs*

[mr. x]

did you read the bbc's interview samplers? i swear only one girl, "marie" even looks like the type of girl who could plausibly have the name "cho"

[Faithless]

Apparently, the controversy was stranger than I thought:

Some Asian Americans are outraged by the stereotypical use of the -Ch at the beginning of the character’s names. Wikipedia says the last name Cho has no meaning in Chinese, and is closely related to Chou, which has negative definitions (i.e. "stink," "slap," "worry," "thick" and "ugly"). “Cho Chang” also means “elephant” in Thai.

Harry Potter Triggers Debate on the Asian Image in Media

News Report, Erin Pangilinan, Philippine News, Aug 01, 2005

With the international release of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Harry Potter #6), Asian fans and readers of the book are looking critically at how Asian Americans fit into the Hogwarts world by examining Asian roles in previous Harry Potter books.

Harry’s romantic relationship with an Asian female named Cho Chang ended in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (Harry Potter #5). The upcoming release of the film this year, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” debuts Scottish-Asian actress Katie Leung, playing the role of Cho Chang.

Asian Americans are paying attention.

Jealous online teens write their thoughts in forums and ever-popular blogs, as well as popular Asian American watchdog websites like Angry Asian Man. Some Asian teens complain that Leung is “ugly,” while non-Asian fans are “jealous” that Harry Potter is kissing an Asian (this is what happens in Harry Potter #5.)

Chang rarely speaks throughout the entire book series (until she is in a relationship with Harry Potter). She is always described as pretty and popular. One may ask: Is Rowling attempting to be politically correct by choosing an Asian as Harry’s love interest?

Some Asian Americans are outraged by the stereotypical use of the -Ch at the beginning of the character’s names. Wikipedia says the last name Cho has no meaning in Chinese, and is closely related to Chou, which has negative definitions (i.e. "stink," "slap," "worry," "thick" and "ugly"). “Cho Chang” also means “elephant” in Thai.

UC Berkeley Chinese American student Zechariah Feng says, “Everyone seems to be looking too much into it. It’s not exactly possible to tell what Cho Chang means because we don't have the stresses (accents) to help us determine what words they are, and of course in the traditional Chinese sense a name always has some kind of meaning as technically so do names in English.”

Rumors have Korean Japanese-pop singer BoA and Filipino singer Heart Evangelista playing the role in the film. Online petitions have been circulated to support BoA as Cho Chang, with similar online discussions for Heart Evangelista. Initially, this sparked interest in the political and cultural identity of Asian Americans as they are depicted in various ways, as Pacific Islanders, East Asians, South Asians, Orientals, Chinese, Filipino, etc.

UC Davis Filipino American student Anthony Tadina does not find this surprising. He says, “Rowling based Cho Chang on what she views Asian girls are -- light skinned, skinny, smart ... the stereotype.”

Closer to home, it is not surprising to find actors/actresses with “Filipino” in their bios playing roles different from their true ethnicity. Aside from the notable films like “The Debut,” “Lumpia,” “The Flipside,” “Lolo’s Child,” “Disoriented” and other attempts to bring the Filipino American to mainstream cinema, many Fil-Am actors/actresses are cast in token roles in films as, maybe, an East Asian nurse, a Hawaiian cook, or a Chinese martial artist.

The same frustration has been expressed by some Asian Americans who have criticized Asian representation in films, ranging from old favorites like “The Flower Drum Song” to the recent druggie comedy “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.”

What about the modern depictions of William Hung as the buck-toothed, tone-deaf singer; Lucy Liu as the swashbuckling dragon lady and the exaggerated image of Mulan as a warrior woman? Isn’t the Asian American much more than these images?

Which brings us back to Harry Potter and Cho Chang. What message is Rowling trying to send by choosing an Asian girl to be Harry’s love interest?

[nola]

i been reading girls hate cho chang because shes asian and an unsympathetic character-- cruel and unfeeling to harry or something.

[hooligan]

Go figure, JK Rowling should have made her Indian. It would have been more ... UK'ish.

[digitaholic83]

whats with this wm/af pairing lately?

[seanp]

Originally Posted by hooligan

Go figure, JK Rowling should have made her Indian. It would have been more ... UK'ish.

there are indian characters in Harry Potter like Parvati or something like that

[hooligan]

Originally Posted by seanp

there are indian characters in Harry Potter like Parvati or something like that

Yeah, I think i remember them, I was just surprised because isn't the UK definition of Asian much different than that of the US? Aren't South Asians the predominant APIUK population there?

[Banana]

Yes according to some friends that visited there.

When people in the UK refer to "Asian," it's usually people from SE Asia and Indians. They refer to Eastern Asians such as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese as "Orientals." I was unable to verify their claim that "Asians" are more highly regarded and treated much better than "Orientals."

[hooligan]

I think that people should mosey over to aamovement.net to check out their article there.

[grimfan]

ome Asian Americans are outraged by the stereotypical use of the -Ch at the beginning of the character’s names. Wikipedia says the last name Cho has no meaning in Chinese, and is closely related to Chou, which has negative definitions (i.e. "stink," "slap," "worry," "thick" and "ugly"). “Cho Chang” also means “elephant” in Thai.

Oh who cares. There's an Irish kid named Seamus Finnigan in the series. Can you get anymore stereotypical than that? I bet he loves Guinness and only wears green while searching for a pot of gold.

J.K. Rowling probably wanted to concoct a multicultural school that reflects the diversity of the UK. There's a couple of black students (Dean Thomas and Angelina something), a couple of Indian twins (Parvati and Padme), and a Chinese girl (Cho Chang). Why's it a Chinese girl as a love interest? My guess is that it's "open-minded" without taking a risk or over-turning social expectations.

[nola]

She's played by a Chinese Scottish hapa from Scotland.

[mr. x]

the only thing that gets me is Cho Chang sounds like some bastardized hybrid korean-chinese name