The doorway of a Shanghai bookstore the day the final Harry Potter book was released. This girl's attire--blue jeans, an American style cap, Levis shirt and backpack--was unheard of when her parents were her age.
In 1966 Mao inaugurated the Cultural
Revolution in part to expunge western bourgeois culture from China. The
picture above, taken in summer 2007, shows middle school children in
Shanghai playing Beethoven's first symphony.
In
the Historical Background we saw the reforms that unleashed the vast economic
potential of
China, the fervor with which
urban Chinese are embracing global culture, and the social policy which
magnifies the effects of these changes onto children brought up with no
siblings. The net consequence of all this is that never before in the history of
civilization has this quantity of change, affluence, and non-indigenous culture
so hastily converged upon such a tightly focused age demographic.
So what is it about Harry Potter that resonates so well with these Chinese urban youth, a generation far removed from the culture of their parents? To be sure, they are drawn to it in part for the same reasons most youth are: they simply enjoy the story, characters and general nature of fantasy fiction. But if anything is to be said for the Global Local model of globalization, we must look further. Keeping in mind the historical uniqueness of this generation, we must turn to some of the more salient themes of the Harry Potter books. [1]
Harry Potter is an orphan born into a universe consisting of two separate but seemingly incompatible worlds. The first of these, the Wizarding World, is characterized primarily by the ability to perform magic. Although this capacity is inborn, its use must be perfected into a skillful practice by disciplined training and tutorship. The other, more mundane realm, is the Muggle world comprised of ordinary human beings who lack any magical powers. The incompatibility between these basic realms is thought to be so great that Wizards expend a great deal of effort driving a wedge between them and keeping Muggles ignorant of their magical activities and powers. Nevertheless, in reality these two worlds intersect at many different points. And superimposed upon this hierarchal artifice of pure-bloods, various half-breeds and muggles, is a complex web of crisscrossing prejudices that enforce these distinctions and sympathies which strive to transcend them.
Unbeknownst to Harry, he is part of the Wizarding World, but his unsavory Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia refuse to disclose to him his magical heritage. These efforts are foiled, however, when Harry receives a mysterious letter inviting him to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he learns of his true pedigree.
When the story begins, the separation between the Wizard and Muggle worlds is already compromised. Elements of Muggle pop culture--rock music, tabloids, and posters of motorcycles and pinup girls--are common among the rebellious young wizards who, to the chagrin of many pure-bloods, are learning to embrace this forbidden culture enthusiastically."[2] Straddling the Muggle world of his upbringing and the Wizarding World of his birthright stands the protagonist Harry Potter, an only child, whose adventures and interactions with the other characters demonstrate the falsity of a system in which one's claim to culture, status and identity is determined by birth rather than choice. "It's our choices, Harry, that show what we really are, far more than our abilities."[3]