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Harry Potter and Cho Chang: Exotified Asian Women and Invisible Filipinos (2 of 4)
Chang rarely speaks throughout the entire book series so far (until she is in a relationship with Harry Potter). She is always described as pretty and popular. One may ask if Rowling attempted to be politically correct by choosing an Asian as a love interest or pose the argument of Cho Chang being an Asian girl saved by her “white knight,” as she cries over the death of her old boyfriend, Cedric Diggory for a large part of Harry Potter #5.
According to Wikipedia, 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”); we know that Rowling still didn't get it right. UC Berkeley Chinese American student, Zechariah Feng puts in an objective view. He 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.” “Cho Chang” also means “elephant” in Thai. Asian Americans are outraged by the stereotypical use of the -Ch at the beginning of last names.
Korean Japanese-pop singer, BoA and Filipino singer, Heart Evangelista were also rumored to play the role in the film. Online petitions were circulated to support BoA as Cho Chang and online discussions for Heart Evangelista. Initially, this sparks interest of the differences between Asian American and Asian for the American audience, which they always confuse. But this is not the only problem Asian Americans face with identity politics and accurate representation in the media.
