Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon

Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon is the loosely translated title (see below) of an unauthorized Chinese 198-page book written and published in 2002. It was seen as an attempt to profit from the worldwide popularity of the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, at a time when the anticipation for the fifth book in that series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, had reached a fever pitch.

Title

The odd construction "Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon" is really Bao Zoulong (豹走龙 Bào Zǒulóng), a character in the book. When non-Chinese media started writing about the book^[1], this was not understood, and the name was translated character for character.

Inspirations

According to translated excerpts, almost the entire book consists of the verbatim text of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien^[2], with most names changed to those of Harry Potter characters (but not all – for instance, the master wizard is still referred to as "Gandalf"). The only parts that appear to be original writing are the first chapter and the last few paragraphs of the final chapter – in which, first, a magical rain turns Harry into a hobbit, and, finally, he returns to his normal self after going through Tolkien’s adventures. The cover shows Harry riding a centaur (actually an illustration created by Warner Bros. to advertise the first film), which is battling a dragon (which appears to be Maleficent in dragon form from Disney's Sleeping Beauty). In what is seen as a genuine homage to Rowling, the book includes a dedication to the owner of the house in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Rowling lives, and to the owner's 3-year-old granddaughter.

Publication, distribution and litigation

The book was quickly recognized as fake. J.K. Rowling (as well as movie rights holder Warner Bros.) took steps to stop its distribution.^[2] Copies were briefly distributed around the world, including e-book copies traded on the Internet. When the actual novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in 2003, interest in the unauthorized book quickly faded. In November, 2002, the Bashu Publishing House, in the southwestern city of Chengdu, agreed to pay a £1,600 (~US$3,400) fine and publish an apology in China's Legal Times for printing and distributing the novel.^[3] As of 2007, the identity of the anonymous "author" has not been discovered. The opening of Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon, translated into English, was included in several news articles^[3] about it. The BBC quoted the following translation.

"Harry doesn't know how long it will take to wash the sticky cream cake off his face. For a civilised young man it is disgusting to have dirt on any part of his body. He lies in the high-quality china bathtub, keeps wiping his face, and thinks about Dali's face, which is as fat as the bottom of Aunt Penny."^[1]

References