Harry Potter fans have been offended by J.K. Rowling’s transphobic Twitter activity before, but this weekend the acclaimed author decided to deliver a massive hit to her own reputation by sharing a series of tweets that made her views crystal clear. Many are furious at Rowling for airing such inflammatory comments at any time, let alone in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement and Pride Month.
Of course, it wasn’t long before the social media conversation also evolved into discussing the poor representation in the HP novels. Case in point: the controversial character of Cho Chang, who many feel was given an insensitive name and sidelined in the story arc. The chatter got so loud it even caught the attention of Cho herself, Katie Leung, who played the Hogwarts student in the Potter movies. And Leung had the perfect response to the situation.
“So, you want my thoughts on Cho Chang? Okay, here goes… (thread),” Leung wrote. Instead of commenting further, however, the actress shared a series of links to donate or otherwise help support the black trans community.
https://twitter.com/Kt_Leung/status/1269574874739113984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Kt_Leung/status/1269574879344541699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Kt_Leung/status/1269574883337474049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This is one of those cases when actions speak louder than words. Clearly, Leung has no time for Rowling’s anti-trans beliefs in general and especially for her voicing them during this particular period. The actress smartly used people’s interest in the Rowling controversy to redirect their attention to much more helpful and important matters. It’s a very classy move from the actress and seems to have had the desired effect, earning over 25k retweets at the time of writing.
In case you missed the Twitter storm, here are a few of the tweets from those criticizing Rowling’s depiction of Cho:
All I got to say is that as an Asian woman that a character being named Cho Chang in a world where people's names are interesting like "Nymphadora Tonks" is nothing. I have nothing else to say. It speaks for itself.
— Aprilyn ✿ Cunanan #StandWithAnimation✊🏼🔥 (@sheeprilyn) June 6, 2020
I love how cho Chang is trending. Gotta get that one off my chest. Jk Rowling gave the one chinese character the name equivalent of ching Chong. Then that character ended up being a snitching ass square. And did literally nothing in the series but date people.
— Kimmy (@kimmythepooh) June 7, 2020
This is every line spoken by Cho Chang in all 8 of the Harry Potter films. Most are her saying “Harry!” like “Harry!! I really am sorry!” and “You’re a really good teacher, Harry.” 🤦🏻♀️https://t.co/QfG0MZlOgF
— Nancy Wang Yuen (@nancywyuen) June 7, 2020
There’s no argument about it, Cho Chang is a deeply problematic character in the Harry Potter canon. Thankfully, Katie Leung seems to be fully aware of this and is definitely not here for Rowling’s nonsense. 50 points to Ravenclaw!