Classic Rowling | TheaterFire

Seems like a bit of reach. Wouldn’t it make more sense that she called him that because he helps spring Dumbledore out of being arrested in the first book he’s in.

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Wiggie49@reddit

Yeah in my mind Shacklebolt sounds a cool entanglement spell to capture someone.

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bk2mummy4u@reddit

I think the other black guy "glock switcher" was a bit too on the nose

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Guardiancomplex@reddit

American transfer student from Baltimore.

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loscapos5@reddit

Iirc, it was because he was a magic cop, so he puts shackles to criminals

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Electrical-Help5512@reddit

I mean I guess I'll take it over the Asian character named Ching Chong?

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Fyrefanboy@reddit

Cho chang is a legit asian name+surname combo. It's like complaining about a french character being named Antoine Dupont or Léon Marchand.

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She should’ve just done ut properly and given Cho an English name to go alongside her real name. I know an Ella who is actually named Xi, and an Aiden who is really Lim as examples. Though I also don’t know if that would’ve been a norm back when the books were written

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Guardiancomplex@reddit

Shout-out to my high school roommate Yi "Walter" Zheng.

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WordsMort47@reddit

You had roommates in High school?? I don't understand America....

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Guardiancomplex@reddit

Pretty sure boarding schools are a global phenomenon dude.

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Fyrefanboy@reddit

It was common and still is for asians to keep their asian names and surnames. I had a chinese classmate at that time which name was Chang Hao

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newrimmmer93@reddit

Have a family friend named Ching Chang

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AdeptusShitpostus@reddit

Even if I knew that was somebody’s name I would feel racist saying it

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Diantr3@reddit

Sounds american

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Aozora404@reddit

Yeah Korean surname + Chinese surname sure makes a legit Asian name

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KingPhilipIII@reddit

Yea because mixing of names from related countries never, ever happens. Pay no heed to basically the entirety of the United States, where people in various states of assimilation adopt a name they think fits their new home more or give their children more Americanized names after immigrating.

The fact Korea and China have existed next to each other and had intense cultural transmission for thousands of years is irrelevant.

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Dasnap@reddit

My nephew has an Italian first name with a very English surname. Shit happens.

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Aozora404@reddit

This is a very weird argument because there are already very many examples of real life Chinese immigrants in both Britain and America that uses “western first name” + “native last name” (Chloe Chang, for example) as a pattern. Even given the benefit of the doubt Rowling very much either willingly ignores or just didn’t bother to research East Asian names in Britain.

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KingPhilipIII@reddit

I mean. I’m entirely open to the idea she just didn’t bother to research it, but there’s a lot of people who hate Rowling and want to assume she did it on purpose, at which point I usually defer to Hanlon’s razor.

I think the far more likely outcome is she looked up Asian names, used one, and that’s it. I don’t think she was intentionally trying to make a caricature of stereotypes like the original person is suggesting, especially because a lot of the exaggerated stereotypes come from the movies, not her writing.

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Aozora404@reddit

What do you think would happen if she gave a black character two vaguely African sounding surnames and called it a day? Why does she get a pass because it’s to an Asian character?

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KingPhilipIII@reddit

I would look down on it as much as I do any other writer with lazy naming conventions. But I don’t think it matters that much, so my overall sentiment is apathy.

Do I care about Cho Chang? Not really. Do I care about Kingsley Shacklebolt? Not really.

But if people want to make a big deal of it, I’m gonna say “That’s dumb and you’re getting worked up over it”

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ecritique@reddit

This thread is so white lmao (bring on the downvotes!). Yeah if it was a Western (or any non-East-Asian) first name + a Chinese surname then I wouldn't bat an eye. But choosing two different East Asian cultures smacks of ignorance; you're not convincing me that Rowling did it with intention.

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Fyrefanboy@reddit

It's more common than you think, believe me. Either in asian and even more in europe.

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punksterb@reddit

I've had white folk tell me "those are both surnames", until I ask them to tell me if James, Harrison, George, Harvey, Dylan etc. are first or last names.

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Moblin81@reddit

That is not equivalent. Just because some names can be put in either position in English, it doesn’t make that a universal rule. Would the name McAllister Ethan sound like a normally constructed name?

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dua_loafer@reddit

Same with Parvati Patel. I mean sure, it’s a combination of two most popular Indian first and last names which Rowling probably looked up before naming the character, but at worst, it’s lazy and not something egregious like “Kingsley Shacklebolt”

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Fyrefanboy@reddit

Also people forget the first books were written in the mid 90s by a 30+ year old lady with not much internet access. "Common knowledge" today about sensibilities or other cultures today was quite obscure back then.

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basilisk_boi2@reddit

Cho Chong will never not be hilarious. God bless Rowling What a ridiculous name

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Asgathor@reddit

There is a german Wizard literally called ‘Nurem Berg’. That’s not even how the city is called in german it’s ridiculous 😭

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5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi@reddit

There is not lmao.

There is however (apparently) a German wizard prison called Nurmengard though built by (and then used to contain) Wizard-Hitler.

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BambooSound@reddit

Nothing will ever beat Kingsley Shacklebolt

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SaltyBigBoi@reddit

I’d rather spend an hour with an Irish person than a Br*tish person any day

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srprizma@reddit

Ireland is under Britain forever and ever

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Helpful_Attorney429@reddit

dont drive your car tonight

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RIPsnoopdogg@reddit

You aren't Irish, never will be

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Helpful_Attorney429@reddit

Never claimed I was. Was just giving a warning

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srprizma@reddit

Thank you helpful attorney, but could you help me get covered with life insurance

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CivilianDuck@reddit

I've spent an hour with a Brit and the whole alcoholism car bombing thing made a lot more sense afterwards.

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Absolutemehguy@reddit

If Rowling had died before he started tweeting the trans stuff we wouldn't have grown ass men desperately try to convince the world that a children's series is le bad.

Also the irish kid blowing up stuff isn't even in the fucking book. Take it up with the director you 🚬s

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cousinned@reddit

Before JK outed herself as a TERF, there was a lot of conservative hate directed at Harry Potter because the connection between witchcraft and the Satanic Panic. I saw plenty of that back in the early to mid 00s.

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InfusionOfYellow@reddit

Yep. One of the most amusing things is the swap from right-wing crazies burning HP books to left-wing crazies doing it.

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AVeryFriendlyOldMan@reddit

And even after that whole bidness with religious fundies, the 2010's saw Rowling trying to earn brownie points with progressives with 'reveals' of who was queer and other after the fact non-thoughts. That got a lot of undies twisted among conservatives

Really both sides of the aisle should be able to come together to shit on some has-been kids book author spending nearly twenty years trying to stay relevant and writing out & publishing her shower arguments like a giant loser.

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TheMustardisBad@reddit

As a child my friend was not allowed to watch Harry Potter or play Yugioh. He did all that at my house haha

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FormerPresidentBiden@reddit

The private Christian school i went to for elementary during that time period officially banned Harry Potter stuff for that reason

Didn't stop me from bringing my copies of the books and reading them on my own time, but, yeah, can confirm

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Zestymonserellastick@reddit

I've always been confused on the "Turn into Rum" argument. Irish drink Whiskey.

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AbadeersGhost@reddit

We get it, you're mad at JK Rowling. Do we have to have a thread of people pretending to be mad that some characters names are generic everyday?

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mostcursedposter@reddit

It's that time again.

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MobiusNaked@reddit

I knew a Seamus Finnegan.

This is like having an English kid called Arthur Chartwell. Hardly offensive but not the most common of names.

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Send_Cake_Or_Nudes@reddit

Yes. People get to come up with racist names and then blame JK Rowling for them. It's a win-win situation of being able to be racist and anti-racist at the same time.

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TDoggy-Dog@reddit

Schrödingers comment: they’re joking when I agree with it, but just being mad when I don’t

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Reading_username@reddit

only black character in Gryffindor

cannonically cucks the protagonist

What did she mean by this?

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Devitostitos@reddit

I think it’s fitting that 90% of the people criticizing the names don’t even list the actual names. Cho Chang is just changed to some other vaguely similar name and then blamed on Rowling for being racist.

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Trick-Caramel-6156@reddit

Be Rowling

Make Irish charecter Irish caricature.

Make asian charecter name her ching Chong ping pong

Make the charecters that responsible for the bank goblins with long nose and make them jerks.

Make harry and Ron go with two Indian sisters becouse nobody wanted to go dance with them.

Make a Canon about spell to flush toilets.

After finish books become homephobic and transphobic.

Also make harry rich but not give any school things to Ron his best pal.

Make TV show and allow them to recast certain charecter black and make thier entire charecter akward now becouse of the recast.

Make unfinished game, that still somehow made tons of money.

Make dumbeldore gay becouse why not.

Despite all this have billions of dollars on her bank account and still make tons of money after everything.

+10000000 points to isreal dumbeldore said calmly.

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LordPopothedark@reddit

r/gaschamberofsecrets

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Berkuts_Lance_Plus@reddit

Oh, we're doing this again.