"Both adults and children are hysterical. The knockout Harry Potter has made the whole world go crazy," some media critics commented on the publication of the fifth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
True enough, this is not an overstatement. With its first edition reaching an astonishing impression of 8.5 million copies, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix priced at US$29.99 each, a coming-of-age story, came out this summer simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, South Africa, etc. More surprisingly, Scholastic, the book's US publisher, estimated 5 million copies were sold worldwide the first day alone, well ahead of the pace of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4).
In white-hot competition with numerous e-products such as PCs, TVs and DVDs, Harry Potter has easily stole the limelight. By catching the reading public's fancy, it has created a publishing miracle.
Nonetheless, "There is not much imagination in Harry Potter," Yang Peng's critical opinion has left people gasping with wonder.
Yang is a famous children's fiction writer who has written many fantasy stories. "Of course I admit that the Harry Potter series are wonderful children's books," he said. "In particular, they have broadened Chinese writers' horizons."
In China where "prodigies, forces, disorders and gods were not talked about" traditionally (The Analects of Confucius), realism used to be regarded as the criterion of literature. "The introduction of Harry Potter," Yang said, "has at least shown people the power and potential market of fantasy literature."
As far as Harry Potter itself is concerned, Yang pointed out that all fantasy elements in the book such as black magic, elves, and different kinds of monsters were not invented by the British author JK Rowling, but came from the fantasy culture popular in Europe for thousands of years. What Rowling did in her books was to integrate and reform these fantasy elements to the liking of modern readers.
As the Harry Potter books currently sell like hot cakes in China, the tendency of over-flattering their author JK Rowling has attracted Yang's attention. "Most characters in Harry Potter are borrowed from fairy tales. Technically speaking, Rowling has drawn on almost all kinds of traditional writing techniques and models when producing her books," he said.
"No doubt Rowling did an excellent job by writing the Harry Potter series," Yang said. "But similar works have been seen in the past, such as a land of wonder and enchantment called Narnia created by British writer C. S. Lewis over 50 years ago in his fashionable Narnia books, and Traces of Immortals in the Green Field, a fantasy story written by Li Baichuan (1719? -- after 1771) of the Qing Dynasty. So in any case, it's not quite the truth that Rowling has no parallel either in history or in the future.”
Interestingly enough, in the beginning, it was the movie rather than the book that kindled the public's interest (in non-English speaking countries). It must be admitted that the investment and shooting by Warner Bros. Picture, Inc. made the name of the novel bigger.
"The success of Harry Potter is just another demonstration of the magic power of business when it set foot in the domain of culture. It's a curate's egg,” said Lu Ye, a writer and head of the Beijing Institute of Book Circulation.
So far as Chinese writers are concerned, the best-selling Harry Potter has provided much food for thought, Yang Peng said.
Encouraged by the Harry Potter miracle, many writers itch to have a go at writing fantasy stories. Nonetheless, obviously they are not yet prepared to do so, Yang sharply pointed out.
Nowadays, Harry Potter has been regarded as the only model to be followed when writing fantasy fiction in China, Yang said. Sticking to this prejudice, to make things worse, many writers lack an understanding of classical Chinese literature. Actually, there are different science fiction and fantasy genres. For instance, some popular fantasy stories had been created in ancient China including Journey to the West (by Wu Cheng'en (1504? -- 1582) of the Ming Dynasty, based on the pilgrimage to India made by Hsuan-tsang, a Tang Dynasty Buddhist scholar), Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio (a collection of about 500 stories by Pu Songling (1640 -- 1715) of the Qing Dynasty), and Book of Mountains and Seas (a mythological work of folk geography in ancient China, of which fourteen stories are attributed to the Warring States Period, and four to the early Han Dynasty).
Mature writing must be based on extensive reading, Yang said. Pitching into the work hastily can only make science fiction and fantasy stories neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, he added.
At present, many children are dreaming of becoming science fiction and fantasy writers, and some of them have even published their works. Yang thought this is the continuation of the child prodigy phenomenon which was prevalent a couple of years ago, reflecting some publishing houses' eagerness for quick results and instantaneous gains.
These child authors' motives have given little cause for criticism. However, by a desire for quick success, parents or publishers may cause the children's imagination to wither and eventually spoil their healthy growth, Yang warned.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, July 28, 2003)
