Pottermania In China

The Harry Potter books in China are more than just a chapter in the history of children's publishing. When the first three books in the series were published as a box set, it became the largest first run printing for a commercial release in the history of China.[1] In the Summer of 2007 Pottermania even entered the sphere of political rhetoric when a politician publicly referred to one of his opponents as the evil villain Voldemort. For many children, the sheer novelty of having foreign pop literature endows the books with all the reverence and veneration of a holy relic. "I have the whole series of Harry Potter books," a sixth grader from Fuijian Province said. "I treasure them so much that I wash my hands thoroughly every time before I open them up."[2] Another young girl admitted that she "becomes totally immersed in the story and forgets about everything in the real world as she reads them."[3]

These reactions are no doubt shared by many children around the world who have read Harry Potter in one of its 60 plus available languages. But what is unique about them in China is that they represent a radical break with the past in terms of China's attitude toward foreign culture. Elvis, Beatlemania, and Star Wars were hardly noticed at all in China, even as its neighbors in Japan were embracing them with increasing enthusiasm.  With a serial run of 10 years and a primary readership in China between the ages of 14 and 24, Pottermania may indeed be emblematic of the generation produced by the extraordinary transformation of the world's most populous nation. But what accounts for the rise of this Harry Potter generation in China?