To Jk Rowling From Chong Chang Analysis

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‘To JK Rowling from Cho Chang’ by Rachel Rostad, is a poem that is narrated through the perspective of Cho Chang - one of the pivotal characters in the widely acclaimed Harry Potter series written by JK Rowling. It describes young Chang’s angst caused by issues of racism against her, which were inadvertently raised in the hit series. In the first stanza, Chang ridicules the position JKR presented her in the books, in a sarcastic fashion. Until her introduction into literature and eventually media, Asian girls living abroad didn’t have much choice for cosplay but to assume characters like Geisha and Mulan. Now, they had another globally renowned Asian character to take inspiration from. But then, sadly, she wasn’t bestowed with a role where …show more content…

She justifies that Cho and Chang are both Korean last names that are oddly irrelevant for naming a Chinese character. As a result of this vagueness of identity, she was unduly consigned to a stock Asian girl who might as well be wearing a ninja costume or chopstick hair ornaments on her tightly bunned hair. Chang acknowledges that JK Rowling wasn’t the first one to make Asian women into pitiful caricatures. There have been many instances in the past where writers and movie makers outside the confines of Asia took Asian women for granted in their characterization, typically by depicting them as tortured souls who get deserted by their white lovers and husbands, as were seen in the cases of Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon. To add insult to injury, these dilettantes of literature and showbiz glamorize Asian women as diffident individuals lacking self esteem who wantonly commit hara-kiri over minor grievances. On the darker side of this puerile travesty rests the illustration of Asian women for the cheap pleasures of schoolgirl porn. It’s alright to fantasize, but it’s too unfair a stretch to deem Asian women as pathetic individuals who suicide for honour and bereavement, or who exude an aura of laughably naive …show more content…

Life was all roses and rainbows for Chang, but as was expected, it didn’t last long. Harry ditched her, leaving her shattered and forlorn, which however didn’t come as much of a surprise to her, considering her ethnicity. After all, she was an Asian. Pardon my French, and a Chink! Falling congruent to conventions, she couldn’t be united with a white guy, and certainly not the protagonist at that! She ruminates over the futility of her bond with Harry that manifested right from the start. This didn’t feed her remorse though, despite the aura of bleakness that engulfed her, because she had resigned to her fate, which came menacingly in the form of the cruel artifice. She wasn’t really drowned in sorrow enough to wail over the separation, but then she was driven to, according to JKR and her

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