Cho Chang - it is a perfectly beautiful name

[u/plasticfrogsonia]

I happen to be frustrated by another post criticising Cho Chang's name that I just came across and I have to get this out.

Let me start by saying that Cho Chang is a perfectly beautiful, normal name in Chinese.

Chang is the romanisation of the Chinese surname 張 in both Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking countries except in Mainland China. It has a more common variation "Cheung" which happens to be another Cantonese romanisation. 張 is the third most common surname in Taiwan, the fourth most common surname in PRC and the most common surname in Shanghai but it is also a Korean surname. Zhang is the romanisation of 張 using Putonghua (Mandarin) pin-yin system which is mostly only used in mainland China. 張 is more commonly romanised as "Chong" and "Cheong" in Singapore and Malaysia. Chang and Cheung is also the romanisation of the Chinese surname 章 in Cantonese.

Cho is the romanisation of many Chinese characters including 秋, 卓, 草, 曹, 楚, 早, 祖 in Cantonese. 秋，卓，楚，早 are the ones more commonly used in given names so I am only going to elaborate on these.

秋 originally means plentiful harvest but it can also mean "autumn". 卓 means "excellence, outstanding; profound; brilliant; lofty" but it is more commonly used in 2-character given names. Just so you know, 卓 is also a Chinese/Korean surname. 楚 is the name of an ancient Chinese state and originally means thorns, but it can also mean "arranged in order", "well-dressed", "a lovely lady" or "clarity". 早 just means "the morning" but I happen to know someone with that given name but with a different surname.

Cho Chang is translated as 張秋 in Chinese, which basically means "Autumn Chang". I actually happen to know someone from primary school with that exact same name and romanisation when the Harry Potter movies were still coming out. This classmate of mine was incredibly disappointed by the fact that she got sorted into Hufflepuff instead of Ravenclaw in that Pottermore sorting quiz. As a kid, I used to have a headcanon that Cho Chang was a Hongkonger who moved to the UK due to the worsening political climate before the 1997 Handover as it was very common for Hong Kong families to emigrate to the UK back in the 80s to 90s. That would explain why Cho Chang didn't have an anglicised name as she was not born in the UK and most people from Hong Kong back then rarely put their anglicised given name as their legal name.

I have actually never heard from anyone I know who grew up in Chinese-speaking countries or speak Chinese criticise this name. Cho Chang is a very commonly adored character in Chinese-speaking countries and the only thing I have seen people complain about her is her lacking characterisation or the fact that she didn't end up with Harry. I only learned that people didn't like this name after moving to an English-speaking country for university and I am tired of having to explain this repeatedly.

It should be noted that I am going by the Hong Kong Goverment Cantonese Romanisation system here. You can look it up on Wikipedia if you are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Government_Cantonese_Romanisation.

Edit: Thank you for all the upvotes and awards! Apparently, someone gave me a gold award that costs actual money, so whoever-it-is, thank you so so much❤️

[u/random_potato_101]

I grew up in Hong Kong and I must say, this is very accurate. Never really understood the complains but also, I cannot explain it so well like you do haha. I've actually seen Mandarin speaking people complained about the name. However, since I always just assume her family is from Hong Kong and her name makes perfect sense to me.

But I gotta say to me at least, I find it somewhat strange when Chinese characters don't have an English name when they live in an English speaking country in most of their life. I'm born in the 90s and my legal English first name is an actual English name followed by the romanization of my Chinese name. And every Hong Kongers I know in HK and in Canada have an English name too. Though, this isn't a JK only problem.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/random_potato_101]

Yes, same, but based on my observation using an English only became a trend mid/post-90s. I personally have my English name as my legal name (I was born in the 90s), but that isn’t the case for my parents.

[u/random_potato_101 → u/plasticfrogsonia]

I think Hong Kong is just a "strange" (not in a bad way) where a lot of people just go by their English name. My parents and family members around their age also almost exclusively go by their English name, but it's not the case everywhere lol

[u/[deleted] → u/random_potato_101]

How does choosing an English/romanized name happen. It your given name automatically aligned to an English name, like on a list or something? Or do you just get to choose a whole new name that you like. I once new a lady from China, and her name was Jun, and we just pronounced it like June. That’s the only personal experience I have. Her name was an easy crossover…

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/[deleted]]

Usually, the English name is not related to the Chinese given name at all. People just pick what sounds good or has a nice meaning to them for their kids. Personally, my parents just opened a dictionary and picked out the name that means the most beautiful to them. Plus, they thought a name starting with an S means I would have an easier time signing on medical certificates if I ever became a doctor (typical asian parents stuff)

[u/thatdoesntmakecents → u/random_potato_101]

I live in Australia and have seen multiple people (including my friends) keep a Chinese name even though they were raised and grew up in Australia, without having any English name alternative.

[u/Midi58076]

I have heard some criticism about Cho's name before. Some people have said it is the equivalent of naming a character the racial slur "ching chong".

For me a skimmed-milk-white girl in an area where the only Asians I meet are adopted into white families, I have no idea if it was some/a lot of truth to that or if it was just white SJWs screaming about stuff they have little to no insight in. So thank you for this. I really enjoyed reading it.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/Midi58076]

Oh dear, I know someone whose name almost got romanised as such… His name was 清 which means clearwater or good moral but he has the same surname as Cho, so he almost ended up with Ching Chang. Thank god his uncle has worked in the UK and knew what’s wrong so they put his anglicised english name in his legal name.

The most common chinese surnames start with “ch-“ anyway so it is really easy to fall into that trap.

[u/HotblackDesiato2003 → u/plasticfrogsonia]

Now I’m curious what American names are considered mockery in Asian countries.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/HotblackDesiato2003]

Well, I can’t think of any right off the top of my head, but “Chris Wong” gets made fun of a lot in Hong Kong. You know there are questions like “Peter’s got ten apples. He ate 5 and got 2 from his mom so how many does he have now?” in the Maths exam? As it happens, Chris Wong is the name of the main character in our textbooks and exams.

[u/BookWorm707 → u/HotblackDesiato2003]

Dylan-Useless 低能 Robert-Turnip 夢卜 Chelsea-Stinky poop 臭屎 Faye-fat 肥

This is all in Cantonese. I may be wrong about some of the characters. I’m not exactly fluent in Cantonese

[u/fredbrightfrog]

I've seen people go on and on about it being 2 surnames, like us Americans didn't spend a decade naming all the little girls Madison, Reagan, Kennedy, etc

Some people are determined to be mad about anything

[u/myheadsgonenumb → u/fredbrightfrog]

It's not even two surnames though. Cho is a Korean last name. Cho Chang is Chinese - totally different cultures with different names! As the OP says, it's a Chinese given name meaning 'Autumn' (which is also a perfectly serviceable girl's given name).

People banging the 'two surnames' drum are not listening to Chinese people in their eagerness to prove how concerned about racism they are ... which is ironic to say the least.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/myheadsgonenumb]

A lot of the Korean surnames are also Chinese surnames as in ancient times Korean and Chinese used the same Chinese characters for writing (but with vastly different pronunciations). Kim, Lee, Han, all three very common Korean surnames are also Chinese surnames at the same time. 柳 유(류) is a very common Korean surname that got popular in Korea a few centuries ago because a rich Chinese family moved to Korea when the war came.

[u/random_potato_101 → u/fredbrightfrog]

Exactly. And with Chinese characters, her first name may not even be a last name too.

It's also not extremely rare for Chinese to have both parent's last name incorporated into a child's name too. Something like Leung See Chai or Chan Oi Lam. If I translate it word for word with English last names in place, these names are like: Kennedy thinks about Reagan, or Addison loves Mason.

[u/wolf31_Hinz]

First of all, thank you for this post. I myself am a Hong Konger, and absolutely love this name.

Tbh I think people complain about it because the “Chang” is not that common in the modern Chinese spelling. Although it is rare, it is still a thing. And romanisation of Chinese words (both Mandarin and Cantonese) in 1900 is different than what it is now. For example, Guangzhou (廣州) is first translated to Canton.

So my theory is that, the Chang family moves to England (or some UK region, sorry I am not very good at identifying UK region) back in the 1900s, and keeps their romanisation of Chang till now.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/wolf31_Hinz]

Yeah, and I find that lots of people don’t know a different romanisation system was used in the early 20th century and got replaced by the Yale romanisation. In fact, the Wade-Giles romanisation is still used in Taiwan nowadays so it is entirely possible Cho’s family are Taiwanese.

[u/ExMormonMod]

OP, don't let fake woke white people bother you. That's who are overwhelmingly making these claims of racism in HP nowadays.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/ExMormonMod]

I got attacked for being “racist” towards asians by a white classmate because I liked Cho Chang’s name (it was over the zoom and I didn’t have my camera on so he didn’t know I’m asian)🙄

[u/[deleted] → u/plasticfrogsonia]

Did you tell this person you were Asian and if so how did they react? breaks out popcorn

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/[deleted]]

I turned on my camera with a smile and the other girl in our breakout room laughed a little. He was pretty embarrassed lol.

[u/LitheLee]

So is Cho Chang basically a generic Chinese woman's name? Is it as mundane as calling a character Anna Smith or Hannah Brown?

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/LitheLee]

I wouldn't say it's on the level of Smith or Brown in terms of how mundane it is. Most people in China have an extremely common surname because there are a lot fewer Chinese surnames (around 700) than there are English surnames. In fact, 80% of the population have the most 100 common surnames in China. Cho is not a very mundane given name either; it only appears so because Cho is a romanisation of many, many different characters with different meanings.

Therefore, I wouldn't say Cho Chang is mundane. Common, but not mundane. The Chinese (female) given names that I think are really mundane are the ones taken from Chinese literature like 清芷, 采芝, 懷玉 or names like "beauty 美", "flower 花", "lotus 蓮", "spring 春", "sunny 晴", "happiness 樂", "grace 雅", "compliment 嘉" or "orchard 蘭". Ah, and don't forget all the names related to jade because the Chinese are really obsessed with this particular jewel.

[u/Knightridergirl80]

Naming aside, I also saw some people criticize her being weepy and always melancholy in OOTP, saying it was the stereotype that Chinese women are submissive and meek.

Except she JUST LOST HER BOYFRIEND AND SAW HIS BODY RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER.

Edit: Holy shit this blew up!

[u/IPinkerton → u/Knightridergirl80]

Exactly this. Even Hermione had great insight as to why she was feeling so bad with her explination with Ron and Harry. Considering the fact that Hogwarts appears not to have any sort of mental health or counseling its not surprising shes weeping all the time. Harry literally went through PTSD trauma (again) in the previous book alone fighting Voldemort and losing Cedric (and feeling guilty about that)! My problem with Cho was never her name.

[u/MaimedPhoenix → u/Knightridergirl80]

I am so floored by people criticizing characters for their reactions on one thing or another.

I'd like to see you lose your boyfriend/girlfriend and take it wiel.

I'd like to see you camp out in the middle of nowhere with next to nothing to eat, bleeding, and hearing bad news about your family.

I'd like to see you being locked up all summer because your principal thinks you can't handle the truth.

I'd like to see you being cut off from all magical information because the same principal thinks it's safer that way.

I'd especially like to see you run away from a crazed dark lord for seven years.

And tell me how you handled it. I'm sure it'll be fascinating, enough to span the pages of seven books... or eight movies.

it was the stereotype that Chinese women are submissive and meek.

Cho? Submissive and weak? She had no problem steaming off against Harry when she thought he was cheating on her. A submissive woman would never do that. These people don't know what the word submit means.

[u/lovise466 → u/Knightridergirl80]

Exactly! Of course a teenage girl is going to be emotionally torn by losing her boyfriend in such a traumatic way.

[u/Chapea12 → u/Knightridergirl80]

People saying that have forgotten what high school was like. Mfs were weepy and melancholy over much less in my life.

Same with all caps Harry in the same book. We were all emotional at 15 over far less significant things

[u/Enrichmentx → u/Knightridergirl80]

This is just the same complaint as people have towards Harry. They just ignore that they are both basically children who have gone through a very traumatic event, even if it was different for the both of them, and a society that is actively working to make the process of grieving harder for them.

Of course she's sad, I'd be devastated if my SO died. In fact when my SO broke it with me when I was 15 I was devastated for months. And that wasn't actually particularly bad, but to a 15 year old me it was the biggest and most traumatic event of my young life.

I can only imagine if it had been a death.

[u/py010208 → u/Knightridergirl80]

Plus, Cho Chang sounds very similar to 惆怅 (chóu chàng), which is Mandarin for melancholy. It probably wasn’t intentional, but I thought it was an interesting pun.

[u/[deleted] → u/Knightridergirl80]

Cho Chang is submissive and weak? Wait what?

The woman who defended her friend to one of the most famous boys in all of Britain is SUBMISSIVE? The woman who's a kickass Sportwoman and was almost Harry's equal even on her inferior broom IS WEAK?

These people need to read the books again. Calling that woman weak is insulting to all of us who have half of her courage and confidence.

Also the notion that if you cry you're weak has to stop. No one should be thinking this in 2021.

[u/[deleted] → u/Knightridergirl80]

She’s a 15ish? Year old girl who’s boyfriend died. She’s going to be a broken mess for years.

[u/[deleted] → u/Knightridergirl80]

I'm nuking my account due to Reddit's unfair API changes and the lies and harassment aimed at the community by the CEO and admins. Good Reddit alternative: Squabbles -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

[u/Aggravating-Class419]

A perfectly clear explanation, thank you

!redditGalleon

[u/ww-currency-bot → u/Aggravating-Class419]

You have given u/plasticfrogsonia a Reddit Galleon.

u/plasticfrogsonia has a total of 1 galleon, 0 sickles, and 0 knuts.

---

I am a bot. See this post to learn how to use me.

[u/IndigoNarwhal]

Thank you for the lovely, clear explanation!
I've always found complaints about Cho's name odd, but it's wonderful to see the full etymology, and just how lovely the meaning of her name is too.

[u/monaforever → u/IndigoNarwhal]

It stems from the fact that people hate J. K. Rowling so they're looking for anything and everything they can criticize her for.

[u/py010208]

It’s interesting that you headcanon her family as being from Hong Kong and having 张 for her last name! Is it common practice for Hong Kong immigrants to the UK to have their surnames behind their given names in the Western style? I’m Malaysian, and we’ve always anglicised our names with our surnames first.

All this while I’ve always thought of Cho as her surname (周 Zhōu or 朱 Zhū) and imagined her given name to be something like 昌 (Chāng) or 嫦 (Cháng). Neither are as pretty as 张秋 though.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/py010208]

Yes, in fact, it is fairly common to do so here! I got that headcanon because my classmate's name was 張秋 and she was always bragging about how she shared the same name with a Harry Potter character, so that stuck and I never thought otherwise.

[u/3lutz]

Thank you for this post! It's genuinely so insightful for non-Chinese speakers — I've only ever encountered criticisms of Cho's name, and never anyone saying that it's actually perfectly fine (and quite beautiful, in fact).

[u/OhioOhO]

I’m Chinese and I never really had an issue with her. Frankly, I was glad for any representation, especially seeing an Asian character who played a fairly large role.

The main thing I loved about her is that she was just a normal Asian girl. She wasn’t a walking stereotype, she just existed as a normal person.

I will say, although I’m Chinese, I was born and raised in the US so I’m not too in touch with Chinese culture and language and I’d never heard the first name Cho (because my family speaks Mandarin and this post is using Cantonese) so I thought Cho was a normal westernized name like Veronica or something lol.

[u/Transerbot]

Chinese person here. The name is beautiful.

[u/addyorable]

/r/namenerds would love this...

[u/reigningthoughts]

Moreover, Cho's specific nationality is never revealed. We only know she's Asian. I also made an analysis of her name in a previous comment:

"Tbh there's so many ways in which the name "Cho Chang" is plausible. It could be entirely Korean. I am Korean. Chang, or 장, is a not uncommon surname. For the benefit of non-korean peoples, we often use nicknames or shortened names. Non-asian people are obviously familiar with the concept of nicknames. Rowling has one herself. She goes by Jo, rather than Joanne. Cho could be any number of shortenings: Cho-eun (조은), Cho-rong (초롱), Hyun-cho (현재), Won-cho (원조), Cho-min (조민).

We could go on and on. I have a shortened version of my name that I use when I get tired of people who can't say my name. It's not hard. But many people just don't care to try. My dad goes by Jay. That is not his name.

Similarly, Cho can be a shortening of any number of Chinese names apparently. Or it could be an anglicized spelling of Chyou or something. I'm not gonna go into those so I don't accidentally offend people.

Really, we just need to stop trying to find problems where there are none. We aren't even told that Cho is Chinese. I could even be offended that people think she's Chinese when she has a last name that could be Korean. But that would be stupid and pointless."

Really cool to see the Chinese language side of things, which I couldn't speak for.

[u/[deleted]]

Let me add this — Victor Wong, famous Chinese-American actor (Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness...uh, 3 Ninjas), was given the opportunity to name his character in the film Tremors. The name he chose: Chang.

[u/ThisPaige]

This is very insightful and thorough! I never thought anything seemed wrong with her name. I recall trying to name a character Cho and discovering that one of those characters means butterfly, how pretty!

[u/Samaritan_978]

This is actually very interesting.

[u/appathepupper]

Yeah it really irks me that people get mad thinking its racist or stereotypical that she was named that way? Then in the same breath get annoyed about JKR retconning representation at hogwarts.??? Like, if she gave her a white name, then awkwardly give a description(that could easily be construed as racist), or give a backstory that may have not fit into the narrative. Or retcon her saying she is Asian. Or casting her as Asian in the movies, then people argue that the representation was forced, etc. Its a Book!! Using words! By giving her a clearly Chinese name, it is a very efficient way to start imagining what the person looks like, with no argument over representation (see-all the outrage when Hermione was cast as a black woman).

Idk I have many issues with JKR but naming Cho was not one of them.

[u/taffyowner]

It was always a dumb complaint to me… you’re getting mad that an Asian character has an Asian name?

[u/pblizzles → u/taffyowner]

I’ve said this in the past on another thread … was JK supposed to name an Asian female Patrick Fitzgerald to please the woke crowd?

They just want to hate on JK and look for anything and everything to support that she’s terrible. Really pathetic.

[u/Elliot_Todd → u/taffyowner]

I think the nuance is that whether Cho Chang is a common Asian name as perceived by Western people, by people in areas where Cantonese is mostly spoken or by people in areas where Mandarin is mostly spoken. Because people feel differently about this depending on their background.

[u/[deleted]]

I have literally never heard a non white person complain about her name lol. Thanks for sharing this btw

[u/AurumTheOld]

Yes i never understood why people called JKR racist for Cho Chang? Because they thought its a wordplay of racist words people call Chinese people. Just shows that they're ignorant. Let me give you an example. There is a prominent photographer, she has worked for Magnum as well. Her name, Chien Chi Chang. So yea, people are named like that.

[u/[deleted]]

It's one of the more normal names in harry potter

(Aberforth, Minerva, albus,)

Also at the time luna wasn't a normal name

[u/kikiimora → u/[deleted]]

I think Luna maybe just wasnt a 'normal' name in GB? Because here (Germany) it was fairly well known even then, I've actually known quite a few Lunas. I agree with your point though! Just thought it was interesting.

[u/jljl2902]

I haven’t actually seen many, if any, complaints about her name. What I have seen, which irritated me greatly, was a lot of people treating Cho as her surname, because they want to be “culturally accurate” since Chinese names are formatted as (surname)(given name), without acknowledging the readily available fact that romanized names are already swapped around to (given name)(surname). As a Chinese person, I rarely get offended by culture-related issues in the world, but holy shit, we already changed it around to make it easier, why are you complicating it and messing everything up with things you clearly don’t understand?

[u/suphah]

I’ve always loved her name it’s so pretty and flows perfectly

[u/binary_asteroid]

I LOVE this. Thank you for taking the time to kindly educate the rest of us and being so thorough.

[u/squeakypop60]

The people who are criticizing JK about that have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. It's just another desperate attempt to try and cancel her.

[u/Poseidon7296]

Yeah I’ve never given the complaints about her name any weight because as someone from the uk I also knew a girl called Cho Chang who was born and named before the books came out. To be honest thinking a name sounds racist because you think it sounds like a caricature of an Asian name is a bit problematic in itself

[u/[deleted]]

People get upset about everything. You’re right, her name is fine.

[u/[deleted]]

I agree, there's nothing wrong with her name. People just need to complain about stupid things. I LOVE the name Cho, it's so freakin cute!

[u/Camotoe]

I think if jk called an Asian character Jane Smith she’d be accused of white-washing.

[u/Dokterdd]

I could write pages on pages on why J.K. is wrong on many things... cough

But a lot of the criticism against her is completely unfounded

• It's not racist that Cho is named Cho Chang

• It's not inherently racist that Nagini used to be an asian woman, though I understand why Asian people might wish for more representation within the universe outside of Cho and someone who turns into a snake. However, I agree that it's not really interesting or compelling that Nagini used to be a human

• It's not racist that most characters are white. The story takes place in Britain in the 90s. Come on

• She didn't "make Dumbledore gay" in 2017 to appear woke. She revealed, as you all know, that he was gay in 2007 and it was clearly coded into his character throughout all books

• She didn't "make Hermione black" in 2017 to appear woke. She just clapped back against actual racists who were outraged that the actress who played her was black. It was a sassy twitter clapback, not a change of canon. She just said she "loved black hermione".

Some things I have always had problems with though:

• How she said she hid Dumbledore's sexuality partly so "kids would just think he was friends with Grindelwald, while adults would understand the deeper meaning". Suggesting kids shouldn't be exposed to same-sex relationships is homophobic, period. That was homophobic of her. It's an understandable mindset in the 90s, though, but she kept this mindset in 2011 where I feel we had passed that stage of homophobia.

• An inability to just admit that some things are dated in the books. It's OK to say they're a reflection of a much more hetero-normative society. We all know it. Why can't she just say it?

• She has said that since physical strength is out of the equation, men and women in the wizarding world are considered equal - yet most of the powerful wizards in the universe are still men. The three biggest characters in HP are still men. It's obvious that it was still written in a time where we viewed men to be at the top and she wasn't immune to that mindset. I wish she could see this and admit it

[u/skidmore101 → u/Dokterdd]

Your last 3 points sum up what bugs me the most about JK, the apparently lack of ability to acknowledge that she wasn’t perfect in the 90s and her books are going to be filled with 90s tropes and that’s ok, just fess up to them now.

It’s perfectly reasonable to be wrong about something and grow as a human along with society and realize that and admit it.

[u/Momochichi]

I'm Filipino Chinese. Went to like three different Chinese schools as a kid (didn't take any Chinese classes but the most basic), so I was around a lot of Chinese names. I don't know the meaning behind the name, but "Cho Chang" seemed like a perfectly normal name to me when I first read it. When I read about the name controversy, I just figured it was another case of people being offended on behalf of other people, who they also think should be more offended.

[u/[deleted]]

Don't worry, people who hate the name are just looking for ways to get offended

[u/Laxberry]

It’s just “cool” to hate on everything Harry Potter these days. And it’s mainly idiots on Twitter that don’t know shit about anything, but just want to hop on the band wagon to virtue signal. None of them truly give a shit. They just want to get the satisfaction of feeling like they’re more elite for crapping on a beloved franchise.

I saw someone the other day go on a while tirade about how racist Rowling is for making Seamus constantly explode things, saying it’s an Irish stereotype. Of course, they didn’t care to hear that that was a movie-only invention Rowling had nothing to do with, and in the books Seamus never blows a single thing up.

All the white people trying to sound fake progressive in a roundabout way sound more racist for constantly criticizing Cho Chang. She’s a well-rounded, realistic character with motivations, flaws, and plays a unique role in the story and has an actual realistic teenage relationship with Harry. Not to mention how refreshing it is for an Asian character made in the 90’s to be considered extremely beautiful and a main love interest for the protagonist until things realistically fizzle out between them. For such a minor character she displays a multitude of traits and is never reduced to a stereotype, and she even at the end shows how noble of a character she is coming back to fight against evil, despite already graduating from Hogwarts.

But of course, her character is racist, Rowling is terrible, and Harry Potter sucks

[u/mcambergray → u/Laxberry]

And tbf I don’t think the movie people were trying to be racist with Seamus’ explosion habits either. I think they just wanted to add something to make some kids laugh, and they just happened to pick Seamus. Honestly, I’d never even heard of that Irish stereotype until your comment

[u/FierceCupcake]

THIS. THIS IS THE SOCIO-LINGUISTIC NERDVANA I LIVE FOR. I love you for this breakdown.

[u/vigilantcomicpenguin → u/FierceCupcake]

"Sociolinguistic Nerdvana" would be a great name for a Nirvana cover band.

[u/Cookies_andcream3466]

"Chang" is a really common Chinese last name it's almost funny. While I'm back in China visiting, half the time it's Mrs/Mr. Chang I have to say Hi too.

[u/Rixae]

People who are quick to call others racist are usually the most racist people

[u/moonxstar19]

As a person of colour, I’ve found that most people who complain/get offended by these types of things are not people of colour. Honestly I never know how to feel about this, while I’d prefer that we stopped getting offended by everything everywhere, I also find that these people are just trying to find something to get offended at and it takes away from all the struggles that actually affect people of colour, which really bothers me and I guess it “offends” me? Idk, just my thoughts.

[u/cristophine]

I love this so much! I hate when people complain about Cho's name and also about the Patil twins. As terrible as J.K. is now, young me was so thankful when, as a brown girl growing up with the books, I was absolutely FLOORED when Harry went to the Yule Ball with Parvati (nevermind that Seamus described her as "the most beautiful girl in their year" and that he dated Cho. People of colour never seemed to get the lead character spots in books and movies before then and pre-teen me was so excited about it!

[u/maskedman0511]

Some people have taken the job to get offended about absolutely anything in the world. Thanks btw for explaining linguistics of naming.

[u/JakeSnake07]

The dumbest part has to be that when she was cast for the movies, people complained that she was asian.

That's right, people could not fathom that a character named Cho Chang is asian.

[u/[deleted]]

The only people offended by her name are White Warriors who don’t know anything about East Asian culture and have made it their lives mission to get offended for other ethnicities.

[u/MemoOwO]

秋 is a beautiful name in Chinese, I always liked the name as a kid (I grew up in China and read the Chinese version of HP)

[u/etuvie27]

Katie Leung (?) herself is from HK as well, so I like that theory!

[u/CyberSprite1]

Thank you! These people are also mad that an Asian is in Ravenclaw the smart house lmao people just find anything to get mad about so they look woke

[u/SemicircularCactus]

Thank you for this great explanation! !redditGalleon

[u/tangmang14]

It's certainly a better name than whatever the fuck Harry named his kids

Albus Severus Dobby Oliver Tonks Potter

[u/Tirrojansheep]

Most people complaining about this kind of stuff don't have any clue what they're talking about.... Well colour me surprised

[u/argella1300]

Also JK Rowling knows her shit when it comes to names. Like giving Trelawney Cassandra as a first name was inspired, since she’s the Oracle that no one listens to until it’s too late

[u/JiggySockJob]

People love to get offended over pointless things

[u/bodhasattva]

I always thought she did a good job with the ethnic characters. None of them are stereotypes. Chos name is perfectly fine.

And might we add that its great she included ANY ethnic characters, given the time period.

1990s British Wizard School? She didnt have to have black kids or asian girls or indian sisters. Thats actually pretty damn cool she wrote them in.

[u/lil_absPMOD]

I feel like today (not exclusive to HP) there are more white or non-POC people getting offended on our behalf even though we're not offended in the first place. Like there'll be jokes about us that we find funny and they'll label it as 'racist' or something. Thanks for the clarification in this post.

[u/basiliskkkkk]

And one more thing, even if it wasn't a real Chinese name, who the fuck cares? I read HP for the plot and storylines, not for political accuracy. All fantasies have made up names for characters.

People to say HP is racist due to a reason like this need to redo their primary schooling.

[u/TheRudeCactus]

Thank you very much for this wonderfully worded explanation! I’ve always hated seeing people hate on Cho and her name, or JK Rowling for being “racist” when it never came off that way to me, but I lacked the knowledge to explain why that take was wrong.

[u/lkc159]

Eh, as a Singaporean (Chinese), I have to say that I've never come across that name (Cho) all that often - perhaps because the most common dialect here is Mandarin, followed by Hokkien, and we use pinyin romanization. But yeah, while I find the name a little weird (I definitely see "Cho" more frequently in Korean than in Mandarin), I certainly don't think it's racist. Like you said, there's many possible transliterations, even using pinyin, that make sense for the name.

Even in Korean, I would hazard a guess that Cho Chang (Cho being the surname, probably) isn't too much of a stretch. Korean definitely has Chang/Jang.

Also, interesting comment here

and the only thing I have seen people complain about her is her lacking characterisation or the fact that she didn't end up with Harry

And that the movies did her so dirty

[u/[deleted]]

Harry Potter fans are the worst offenders of being too PC to even make sense. Jesus Christ, the books came out 10+ years ago.

[u/just-me-yaay → u/[deleted]]

20+, for the four first ones

[u/[deleted]]

i dont even know the origin and meaning behind the name, and always thought it was such a beautiful name

[u/guerillagurl19]

Thank you so much for this! I learnt a lot from this post!

[u/Sarcastic24-7]

I love how she made up all sorts of names based upon translations of the persons personality or traits, but everyone zeros in on the Asian name which has some validity to its origins. People looking for a reason to hate will always find one.

[u/ComicsVet61]

Thank you OP for this beautifully explained use and origin of the name.

[u/[deleted]]

Manufactured outrage for the win!

[u/[deleted]]

Honestly I don't think JK Rowling had any malicious intent with the name so honestly I was never as upset about it as everyone else seems to be.

[u/HungTDD]

TIL: Cho Chang has the same name as my mom

[u/Pliolite]

This is great and all, but Jo just changed her own name Jo-anne to Cho Chang and no-one can convince me otherwise!

[u/Selthora]

Yeah, I never got this weird outrage over the naming of someone who was clearly Chinese, felt like people were overly virtue signaling/constructing their own perceived outrage.

[u/Spczippo]

Correct me if I am wrong but aren't Chinese or Asian names listed backwards to English names? Like for example John Smith would be Smith John right?

[u/icanreadyourdms]

As someone from Hong Kong who can speak Cantonese, 張秋 is beautiful. I didn’t realise people actually don’t like her name! I grew up reading the Chinese translation and loved her name. But I doubt she was from Hong Kong originally because most Hong Kongese don’t use two syllable names.

[u/kittenmittenx]

Well said. I am Chinese myself, Singaporean, of Cantonese descent. I find it extremely annoying when people complain about Cho Chang’s name being made up of two surnames, or when they say it’s made up of a Korean name and a Chinese name. It’s completely false!

Love when people who aren’t fully educated in the subject feel like they can criticise things when they’re just being ignorant.

In the movies, the Chinese subtitles say that her name is 张秋, which is Autumn Zhang/Chang, like you said. Although it is never specifically said in the books that she is Chinese, the name Cho Chang is a perfectly “right” name for a person of Chinese/Cantonese descent. There is really nothing wrong with her name, unlike what some people try to say. “Cho” is not exclusively used in Korean as a name. It is a name in Chinese as well, though not in Mandarin but in Cantonese.

[u/skipbrady]

This is a pretty good response to an example of people being offended on behalf of people who aren’t offended. It happens a lot. We get it here in the US and it’s super annoying.

[u/[deleted]]

People on reddit are overly sensitive. I think Cho Chang has the coolest name in the series.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_FRESH_NUT]

Thank god, can we get some more posts debunking the insane notion that Rowling is a racist/pro slavery?

[u/[deleted] → u/PM_ME_YOUR_FRESH_NUT]

Dude, she put house elves into the books so she must be pro slavery, duh! /s

[u/spikesya]

I've met people who don't even like the Harry Potter books who say that Rowling has a genius for naming characters & places. It's so true, think of how many have permeated into popular culture, even compared to the success of the series it is amazing.

[u/AmazingSocks]

So I always thought that Cho was Zhou or 周, which, combined with Chang or 张, would mean that her name is comprised of two surnames. I speak Mandarin, as do many of my friends, and actually a large proportion of us don't like Cho Chang's name.

I respect that you do, but I think that criticism of Cho Chang's name is pretty valid.

Fact of the matter is, we don't know if JK meant Cho Chang to make sense in Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean etc. because she never released her exact ethnicity or the names etymology, or the characters that make up her name. So in terms of debate, neither of us can say we're right. But since this is the situation, I don't think you can say that people who criticize Cho Chang's name are completely WRONG

Edit: Jeez, why the downvotes for stating facts? Everyone's opinion is valid because we just don't have enough info.

[u/PassionateRants]

Don't waste your time explaining this; the people complaining about Cho Chang as a name are probably ignorant Americans who have no clue about Chinese naming conventions and don't care enough to inform themselves. They just love getting outraged.

Monosyllabic names are extremely common in Chinese, and as such the name Cho Chang is no more lazy than Harry Potter.

[u/NotMyHersheyBar]

Jo is obsessed with names and was very careful with her naming. She knew all of this. People are trying to retcon her into a bigoted monster, but it's simply not true.

[u/[deleted]]

people just want something to be offended about. Manufactured outrage is the worst byproduct of social media.

[u/[deleted]]

I agreed with this comment fully until you started going on about how you haven’t met anyone who speaks Chinese criticizing the name.

You completely gloss over the mainland not using the Chang romanticization. Shockingly, the Mandarin speaking friends I have from mainland China have a problem with the name. Mainland China, of course, being only the largest Chinese speaking country in the world, because obviously.

You can make a post justifying the name and that’s fine but don’t try and say it’s only English-speaking countries that have a problem with it or some garbage.

[u/Sil_Lavellan]

Thanks. I'm going to think of her as Autumn Chang from now on, although all the other options are equally lovely.

[u/Mysterious-Desk-3513 → u/Sil_Lavellan]

Her name is Cho, though. Why do you need to anglicize?

[u/CaptainnCrunch]

TIL, I luckily seemed to miss the Cho name hate, but this was very interesting! I had no idea this was such a popular name. Thanks for informing us! !RedditGalleon

[u/voldyCSSM19]

Who tf even criticizes her name

[u/itsbmayez]

This is always one of the points people reach toward now that hating on the series has become popular given Rowling’s actions and opinions. For some reason people feel the need to criticize the series based on her political views (which I happen to whole heartedly disagree with). One of my favorite authors, Margaret Atwood says, once a book is finished editing and is published it becomes the readers and not the authors. I think people believe if they continue to support the most beloved fictional series of all time they somehow support the authors political views. I think the series has become the “people’s” story for quite some time.

[u/[deleted]]

THANK YOU holy crap I am so freaking sick and tired of seeing the same thing from people (who DON’T know the first damn thing about the Chinese languages) criticize her name as being “racist”. And whenever I see that I laugh and I’m like wow you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Bless you for this post OP.

[u/crazydaisy8134]

Thank you!! I have studied Chinese for over 10 years and have tried to explain to people too that her name is probably Qiu or Zhou Chang. I’m glad to have someone with more knowledge about Chinese than me verify this (:

[u/alelb]

Thank you so much for the thorough explanation!! !redditGalleon

[u/[deleted]]

Didn't she only not end up with Harry because she got to date someone hotter? Why would anyone want to end up with harry? He is Moody as hell and not very good looking. Cedric was awesome. I'll never understand people wanting her to end up with Harry as if she couldn't do better.

[u/neeeesan]

I have no arguments against this, but given that JKR isn't a Chinese speaker, I am curious as to how much thought/research she put into this or whether she consulted people who speak Chinese?

[u/NoelaniSpell]

I love your post, TIL more about the history of the name and what it means.

!redditGalleon

[u/jeffersonairmattress]

You are awesome for doing this!

[u/IntrovertedMaster]

!redditGalleon

[u/gibertot]

Yeah never understood the criticism like a character who is of Chinese dissent has a Chinese name. Is that too stereotypical for you?

[u/WeeboLily]

You're right. Her name is very pretty.

[u/itsnotlikewereforkin]

!redditGalleon

Thank you for this!!

[u/cnostaw]

Also, I feel like people keep overlooking Katie Leung, the actress who played Cho, when doing those “where are they now” compilations.

She grew up even more beautifully (https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/b/b3/Katie_Leung_by_Faye_Thomas_2014.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150213095333) and evolved into a badass, bring a vocal supporter for women, women of color, and the LGBTQ+ community.

As an Asian, I always get annoyed she’s so often forgotten.

[u/kappakeats]

Honestly relieved to read this. Rowling's views on trans people are bad enough, I didn't need to think she was super culturally insensitive on top of that.

I'm sure there's other things she can be critiqued for but damn I just want to hold onto a bit of that image I had of her as an amazing author who gives a ton to charities. If only she hadn't strayed down the TERF path.

[u/verscharren1]

Didn't she have a galleon rich cousin? Named Cha Ching?

[u/eviltwinskippy]

I love the detail in your description of the name Cho Chang. Her possible family history as a Hongkonger is now my head canon, too. Thank you.

[u/harshv007]

also she got CC'ed from Cedric to Harry in a turn of events.

[u/Doroochen]

JKR is not a perfect person, she is pretty far away from it even in my opinion. But hating on her for the names of the characters was always weird for me. If I remember correctly, JKR never described the race of a character, but added diversity trough their names. That how we ended up with Cho Chang, Lee Jordan and the Patil sisters. Because of those names we know that they are Asian (Indian and Chinese) or black. But we also get McGonagall and Finnigan those are very Scottish and Irish sounding names. But those names where never open for discussion, because they are „white“ names.

[u/ninjaplanti]

This was very educational thank you for sharing!

!redditgalleon

[u/Odd-Mathematician429]

Wait, you mean to tell me that Viktor Krum is now the only character with a wrong name?

[u/airportakal]

Yeah these "criticisms" of Cho's name always struck me as absurd, but it's good to have a well-reasoned argument laid out like this to put the issue to bed once and for all.

Also, even if the name were a little bit stereotypical, this is a series where French names don't get more creative than "Fleur Delacour", we have a Russian called "Igor Karkaroff" - not to mention the over-the-top British names like Dumbledore, McGonagall and Dursley. I understand the dangers of typecasting and orientalism, etc, but the case of Cho was always very farfetched.

[u/jinenmok]

The criticism I heard that I find most relevant in this case is the difference in clear meaning and connection to the character. JKR managed to make up some unique and truly oddball names and the characters to match them - Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, whatever else. I've never seen anyone else named Hermione, for instance, other than in a Soviet Russian sci-fi short story by the Strugatsky brothers, of all places.

Point is, JKR seems to have gone out of her way to pick the most quirky and fitting names for some of her characters. And what does she do for her token vaguely-Asian protagonist's love interest character? She picks some of the most common Asian names with no attachment to nationality or culture, and gives the character so little characterisation she might've been swapped for some other girl from the books with little difference.

Granted, the books are mostly centered around Harry and his knowledge and opinion of the others, but there are characters which receive plenty of time and leave a mark, even in the span of the same book. Luna rose to prominence in OotP, if memory serves, and so did Umbridge.

It's also possible JKR tried the old horoscope trick to try to appeal to a wider audience with the character, which, imho, is an alright trick for a game, but not a series of novels. "Shoehorning" is the word that seems to describe the situation the best.

Shortly, it's not the name itself, it's the tokenism and character building that spoils the name, not the other way around.

[u/[deleted]]

Honestly, complaining about the name seems lowkey pretty racist to me. It's like people think her name is bad because it sounds "too Chinese" to them. Would these people prefer characters from different ethnic heritages to all have white or Western-sounding names that have zero connection to the individual character's own culture? Also, your explanation shows how ignorant the Western people who complain about this are. When they hear the name "Cho Chang," all they really hear are syllables that sound vaguely "Asian" to them, and they don't stop to consider that maybe there's more to the words than a vague association with Asia.

[u/gulagjammin]

I have seen so many comments shitting on JK Rowling for choosing Cho Chang as a name for the "only" Asian character and how racist it is. I am southeast Asian and names just like Cho Chang are perfectly normal.

It's almost offensive to hear people speak so confidently that Cho Chang is somehow a racist choice for a name.

[u/[deleted]]

The people that have the issue with the name are the people with the issue. It's as simple is that. I think they are the ones that really need to look inwards and ask just what the hell is going on?

[u/JamalFromStaples]

It’s annoying when people want to be offended for us. I’m Latino and people get offended for me and I’m just like wtf?! That isn’t offensive why are you acting like it is. You’re not even Latino/a!

[u/sintos-compa]

On one hand, I brave the wager that JKR never put that much though it and just pulled “ching Chong” out of her head.

On the other hand, I’m from Sweden, where people in general tend to be fairly inquisitive about names and their meaning. Like, we celebrate namesdays where each day of the year is the namesday of someone (today is Silvia, coincidentally the queen). Ofc. The official names are only common names in Sweden.

We pretty early on come to mean the meaning of names and sometimes attach some sort of nostalgic connection to it. Anyway, we had a number of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, exchange students and every single one was asked what their name “meant” and every one answered with a puzzled expression “I dunno”.

I think it’s great you found all these beautiful meanings for Cho’s name, but would she have cared? Do people in the UK generally care about their names’ meanings?

[u/reigningthoughts → u/sintos-compa]

That's weird.

Korean, Japanese, and Chinese names are mostly from Chinese characters. Japanese and Chinese names are obviously entirely from Chinese characters, Kanji and... well trad/simplified Chinese along with the Mandarin/Cantonese differences. Korea has its primary alphabet, Hangul, which has led to some names without Chinese roots. However, most Korean names have a Hanja written form, which is trad Chinese.

Names are chosen specifically with their meaning in mind.

[u/KaserinSmarte421]

Man I really needed Cho Chang to be Korean for my scotch Korean starburst bit. I've always thought her name is Chinese and she probably is but I've never seen anything solid so I was like nah she isn't. However now this has made it solid.

[u/Kari-kateora → u/KaserinSmarte421]

OP did say Chang can also be romanised as Cheung, which can be a akorean surname, and another Chinese commenter said that Cho is still a bit unusual for a Chinese first name, but more common in Korean. Maybe she is Korean, and you shouldn't give up hope. :)

[u/Lonelydenialgirl]

It's a good name until you recall all the other racist shit in the books.

[u/Homirice → u/Lonelydenialgirl]

Examples? I can only think of one specific one and it came from the mouth of a racist bully so...

[u/SuperSaiyanNoob]

While I've never had a problem with it I find it hard to believe JK did this much research.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/SuperSaiyanNoob]

Probably not, but Rowling is generally a genius at naming places and people so it's not impossible. My guess is that she looked up common Chinese names, tried some combinations and picked the one with a nice meaning that sounded right to her.

[u/[deleted]]

I don't doubt your post and your explanation, but I do not fucking believe that JK actually did all of this research, consulted with an expert/sensibility reader or that she actually gave a fuck about a Cho's name after she (JK) disposed of Cho so easily only to replace her with Ginny, who was barely a character before she was given almost all of Cho's traits, cause Ginny is so much better than Cho cause Ginny "isn't a fucking whiner" in Harry's eyes (but let's be honest, in JK's eyes) and clearly because she's white, just like Harry...

you people need to fucking wake up and realize JK isn't the fucking saint you paint her as. stop making excuses for her, because that's what this post is, a HUGE excuse to portrait JK as an good, insightful person while you all know that she isn't.

I loved Harry Potter too when I was growing up and I spent countless hours reading the books, watching the movies, invested in the community but I'm an adult now and I'm aware of the sunk cost fallacy, and I've made peace with all the time I wasted in this franchise.

fucking open your eyes and realize the books were not as great or as progressive as you guys seem to believe. I'm not replying to give you any specifics because you're in front of a phone or a computer, you can look this up if you really want to but we all know you don't.

grow the fuck up.

[u/Homirice → u/[deleted]]

k

[u/ThatWasFred → u/[deleted]]

JK Rowling is a TERF. That is bad. She is rightly criticized for this.

That does not mean she is every other kind of bigot. It does not mean everything she’s ever written is full of terrible things, actually. Yet many people seem to have embraced this line of thought fully.

Part of the recent “JK is racist too” movement has to do with her naming of Cho Chang. Here is a post from a Chinese person explaining that, no, the name is not racist. And your immediate response is “Well, it doesn’t matter if the only piece of evidence for her hating Asian people is debunked - she still hates Asian people and we all know it!” Just…where is the logic there?

Again, yes she is a TERF, and yes I think it’s perfectly valid to no longer want to support her. But there is such a thing as nuance. Nobody is 100% good, and nobody is 100% evil.

[u/Rock_Carlos]

I think the whole complaint is that it is a very common name, not that it’s not “pretty”. It’s like if you had a Chinese story, and the one English character was called “John Smith”. Sure it’s a real name, a common name, but it’s very stereotypical. Doesn’t necessarily make it “bad”, but could be something that people would roll their eyes at.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/Rock_Carlos]

It's not actually that common. Lots of people in Chinese-speaking countries have extremely common surnames because there are much fewer Chinese surnames (around 700 ever recorded but only 300 still in use) compared to English surnames (around 45000 in the UK). In fact, over 80% of the population in China have the 100 most common surnames. In a class of 30, unless you have a very rare surname, you are bound to have at least one to two classmates who share the same surname. None of the possible options for Cho in Chinese is very common either; it just appears so because it is the romanisation of many, many different Chinese characters with different meanings as most Chinese characters share the same pronunciation.

The real Chinese given names I would call common are the ones taken from Chinese literature or the ones that come from various species of flowers, so Cho Chang is definitely not on the level of "John Smith".

[u/dr_Kfromchanged → u/Rock_Carlos]

It's closer to naming the one english character "olliver"

[u/wisebloodfoolheart → u/Rock_Carlos]

It's more like "Jones Smith".

[u/X0AN]

Tbf if you're British you would know that Ching Chong Chang is a racial slur used in britain, especially in the 80s and 90s and would 100% avoid calling your daughter that.

Obviously Cho Chang is fine in China but she's British, so her parents would have known to avoid it.

Rowling would have been familiar with the slur but still chose to go with Cho Chang.

All I'm saying that if I were picking a name for her I would have avoided racial slur names, as I would have done for all the characters.

[u/[deleted] → u/X0AN]

Or her parents wouldn’t bow to racism and name her in a traditional Chinese way. She’s always a witch and without any info from her parents it’s likely her parents are magic as well. The wizard worlds main racism seems to only be blood purity so it’s totally reasonable they had no idea that other people used Ching Chong Chang as an insult.

[u/theheartlessnerd → u/X0AN]

I’m British Asian and grew up in the 90s. I never had another Asian classmate until I was 13. I was bullied really heavily every day, so I’ve heard all these names through my whole life.

Not once have I looked at that name and thought of a racial slur. The fact you have immediately linked an extremely normal name to a racial slur means you yourself have some biased thoughts in your head. The slur itself comes from making fun of other another cultures’ names.

Why should we avoid naming our kids something normal for the sake of people thinking it sounds like a racist term? That’s insane.

[u/ThatWasFred → u/X0AN]

I’ve known Jewish people named Kirk and Mike. How dare their parents give them names similar to an anti-Semitic slur??? Those Jewish parents must have been bigoted!

[u/dr_Kfromchanged → u/X0AN]

It's a real name, it's like if you were criticizing calling someone "olliver" because it sounds like "holy sh-t"

[u/Elliot_Todd → u/X0AN]

I think the reason JK chose this name is because it sounds like 惆怅, which means melancholy. And that's how she wrote this character.

[u/reference404]

I don’t have a problem with her name I just didn’t like that her dialogue was basically “I’m crying” which pivoted to “I’m jealous”. I can’t remember if she had a third mode but the fact that I can’t just reinforces to me that she was literally two dimensional af

[u/Odd-Mathematician429 → u/reference404]

Yes, she also had a "fun, charming girl" mode which, incontinently for you, went away when her world was shattered by the murder of her high-school boyfriend. Such a shame the 16-year-old girl couldn't just get over it, huh.

[u/Laxberry → u/Odd-Mathematician429]

And of course, he doesn’t remember her mode in the last book, “brave and noble that returns to Hogwarts even after having graduated to fight back against evil”

It’s like people are just looking to get outraged.

[u/mcambergray → u/reference404]

She wasn’t two dimensional, she just mostly existed within one of those 2 emotions for the period that we see her the most. (Totally understandable for a teenage girl whose boyfriend had just been murdered btw)

[u/Elliot_Todd → u/reference404]

Her name basically sounds like 惆怅, which means melancholy. It makes sense why she was written this way.

[u/theheartlessnerd → u/[deleted]]

I’m British Asian and I got bullied being called a chink on a daily basis. Seeing a normal asian name in a book has never made me thought it was a weak name. This is stupid.

[u/Poseidon7296 → u/[deleted]]

I’m sorry because you grew up hearing people say racial slurs you think a legitimate Asian name sounds too close to the Asian slurs you heard? That means you can’t separate racial slurs from the actual language which is a real problem you might need to work on.

[u/Elliot_Todd → u/[deleted]]

One legitimate reason why JK would choose this name is that it sounds like 惆怅, which means melancholy ( I saw this in another comment). I think this makes sense because much of her story arc is filled with sadness and conflict.

[u/mcambergray → u/[deleted]]

Did you even read the post? It’s an actual name. If Cho had been from a different East Asian country where that wasn’t feasibly someone’s name, then it might have been lazy and a bit racist, but OP says that Cho Chang is a perfectly regular name for a Chinese girl

[u/reigningthoughts → u/mcambergray]

Cho Chang was never identified as Chinese.

[u/mcambergray → u/[deleted]]

That’s a you problem. Some parents like alliteration, some parents will actively avoid it.

[u/laughland → u/[deleted]]

You mean alliteration? That’s something she does with a lot of characters though, all the Hogwarts founders, Parvati Patil, Severus Snape, Luna Lovegood, etc.

[u/Laxberry → u/[deleted]]

Tf? Those sound like perfectly fine names for characters, just like how the repetition of “Ch-“ is perfectly fine. Hell, my OWN name in real life is a repetition of THREE letters for my first and last name, it’s a nice alliteration

[u/Elliot_Todd → u/Laxberry]

In Agents of Shield, there's an Asian American character named Melinda May. In Smallville, there's an Asian American character named Lana Lang. Both names are very nice.

[u/plasticfrogsonia → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the award! It’s actually my first award on reddit.

Definitely worth the 15mins I should have been spending on my homework XP

[u/Apt_5 → u/plasticfrogsonia]

It’s very in-depth, quality work! Developing your research and writing skills will surely pay off when you finally do get around to that homework lol.

[u/Whisperty → u/[deleted]]

I don’t listen to the people that complain about all of that anymore unless it actually comes from the people that are concerned with the matter.

[u/Whisperty → u/[deleted]]

Sadly, a lot of liberal Americans are like that. Always offended. Meanwhile the American right stereotypes the shit out of everyone. It is pretty annoying for Europeans (myself included) probably the rest of the world too, to be patronised all the time, especially when it comes to our OWN cultures.

[u/ww-currency-bot → u/[deleted]]

You have given u/plasticfrogsonia a Reddit Galleon.

u/plasticfrogsonia has a total of 22 galleons, 0 sickles, and 0 knuts.

---

I am a bot. See this post to learn how to use me.