"To JK Rowling, from Cho Chang"

[ravenstar84]

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I am going to spread this video like fiendfyre. Everything said in this poem sums up all the feelings I've had towards Cho Chang for the past decade that I couldn't/was too lazy to put into words. I almost got teary eyed at the end.

Comments

[summeriris]

I really don't want to get into a discussion about bigotry or anything but there is two points I'd like to mention.
1. Rowling didn't really write her books to please sensibilities in the US. The books are British and are very British.. I find the entire pre-occupation of how Rowling didn't take American sensibilities into account to be rather racist toward the British to be frank. It's like Rowling didn't have the right to write her books from a British point of veiw, she should have kept the American point of view front and centre..
2. Rowling wrote characters and not ethnic minorities. This might be racist I don't know, but she really didn't put a lot of different ethinic traits or even gender traits into her characters. There was that whole thing where Blaise Zambini was thought to be a white girl for the longest time. Cho Chang might have been born to Asian parents, but she is a British girl. She was not put into the books to have a British Chinese character in the books, she was a character who's surname just happened to be

[summeriris]

I've never denied they exist, I just don't remember you being elected the spokesperson for every Asian out there.

[ravenstar84]

Me speaking of my conversations with other non-US Asians about racism does not mean I've elected myself a spokesperson for all of us. Keep in mind I would not have needed to do that had you not kept insisting that my claims about racism was strictly an American standpoint and that I was somehow lumping all non-US countries together.

[summeriris]

No I did not claim that your claims about racism was 'just' an American standpoint. I said your support of Ronsard's poem and her poem itself was ignoring the fact that the book was British and that Rowling did not write it with American sensibilities first and foremost in her mind. That like a lot of Americans you were iginoring the Britishness of the books and the fact Cho's character despite the casting in the film could really have been from any ethnic background. I pointed out that Cedric at no point is defined as being automatically Caucasion, and that was ignored. I find that offensive. That you can read a work and not notice that it isn't set in your country, and that the characters are not automatically slotted in to the required minorities to please your sensibilties

[ravenstar84]

Then can you explain to me why I have encountered Asians from the UK, Australia, and even France that have voiced the same concerns as Rostad? You claim this is about American sensibilities, when it isn't just Americans saying these things. Are they ignoring the Britishness of the books too?

[summeriris]

No country is perfect when it comes to discrimination. Not even Asian countries, not even France. That doesn't mean the vast majority of the population of any country is bigotted. I don't believe in condemning a country because some of it people hold beliefs that I find reprensible and stop trying to offload your discrimination onto other countries. You caused my offence, you and Ms Ronsard! I don't know how Australia and France treats their citizens first hand. You don't know first hand either. Everybody has complaints, you just seem to be selective as to what complaints you listen to, and what Asians you listen to

[ravenstar84]

Look, I wouldn't have dragged it on this long if I wasn't so baffled by this conversation. It's not even an issue of you and me disagreeing. You've continuously misconstrued all the points I've said to you and projected on to me what you think I'm saying. I've had to ignore points you've made about the books because I'm too busy trying to re-explain what I'm actually saying, which for some reason you still think I'm saying something different. And in your last reply, you don't seem to want to take in to consideration that discussions about race within the Harry Potter world have taken place amongst quite a few of us from around the world in the last few years.

I don't know. I've had conversations with you about racism and other tough topics before and we've never had this problem, disagreement or not.You've never complained about my smugness or arrogance when I used to argue with people you disagreed with you. And I've calmed down a lot over the years.

And I'm done as well. Because frankly, I'm still lost.

[summeriris]

You are right. This 'disagreement' is going round in circles and it's decending into acrimony, which I did not want. I am walking away now to calm down and let my feelings settle.

[ext_5137560]

The actress who played Cho is a Scottish
Chinese...
Her race is Chinese but her
Nationality is Scottish