CHINESE POTTER NUTS

Remarkable article in the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/world/asia/01china.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
(Chinese Market Awash in Fake Potter Books, by Howard W. French).


“The global Harry Potter publishing phenomenon has mutated into something altogether Chinese: a combination of remarkable imagination and startling industriousness, all placed in the service of counterfeiting, literary fraud and copyright violation.”


This in reference to Harry Potter tales written in China with titles like “Harry Potter and the Young Heroes”, “Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon”, “Harry Potter and the Big Funnel”, “Harry Potter and the Chang-Shou blade”, “Harry Potter and the silver lute”, “Harry Potter and the grave of the Marquis of Jin”, “Harry Potter and river-flows-sideways”, and "Harry Potter sees a pink-elephant".
[That last one is made up.]


Coming soon: Harry Potter and the Butterfly Lovers, Harry Potter and the Peach Blossom Fan, and Harry Potter and White Snake – all Kun-style operas sung in a sixteenth century version of Soochow dialect.

-------------------------------------------------

For Kun Qu opera, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunqu,
but if you're really interested in Chinese opera, you should know from this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_opera.
Believe me, 粵 劇 is the only thing you need to know about the subject, there is no finer entertainment than the opera-style of Kwantung. Who can possibly forget Fong Yim-fang's resplendent presence in a multitude of romantic roles? Or the stirring cycle of plays about the women generals of the Yeung family defending the frontier against the barbarians? Rousing, indeed.
And if you're worried that the high-fallutin language might be beyond you, be not afraid - the full libretto is projected in clear characters on a long white scroll hung next to the stage, sentence for sentence as it is sung.