Cho Chang
Template:HP character Cho Chang is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Background
Cho is a Ravenclaw student who is one year older than Harry, and plays Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. She is best known for being Harry's first crush, first kiss, first girlfriend, and first breakup. She is described as being "very pretty" with long dark hair, and is frequently accompanied by a group of giggling Ravenclaw girlfriends. Her Patronus is a swan.
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Cho's first mention in the series is during Gryffindor Quidditch captain Oliver Wood's scouting report prior to the upcoming Gryffindor-Ravenclaw match, in which she is described as having "problems with injuries." Before the start of the match, Harry feels a flutter in his stomach at first sight of her, and during the match, she flies by him with a grin after Wood bellows at Harry, "Knock her off her broom if you have to!" Harry blushes when she wishes him good luck prior to Gryffindor's Quidditch Cup final match against Slytherin.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
During Harry's fourth year, his crush on Cho intensifies and he works up the courage to ask her out to the Yule Ball, but his self-consciousness causes him to initially jumble his request ("Wangoballwime?"). Cho apologizes and replies that she had previously accepted Cedric Diggory's offer, leaving Harry to ignore his own date and jealously perseverate on the couple for nearly the entire length of the ball. Nonetheless, Cho is still kind to Harry; much to his relief, she refuses to wear one of Draco Malfoy's "Support Cedric Diggory/Potter Stinks" badges. She and Cedric maintain their relationship until his shocking murder by Peter Pettigrew during the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
At the beginning of Harry's fifth year, Cho surprises him by seeking him out several times and attempting to have a conversation, but these encounters do not go well. The first time, before the new term, she enters his compartment on the Hogwarts Express only to find him covered with Stinksap accidentally expelled by Neville Longbottom's Mimbulus mimbletonia. Her second attempt to talk with Harry ends abruptly after Ron Weasley butts in with his criticism of Cho's choice of Quidditch teams (the Tutshill Tornadoes) and accuses her of being a bandwagon supporter. On the third try, when she happens to enter the Owlery while Harry is there, she defends him from Argus Filch's suspicions of Harry illegally possessing Dungbombs.
Cho is one of the first students to believe Harry's declaration of Voldemort's return, and when invited by Hermione Granger to join Dumbledore's Army (the D.A.) at the Hog's Head, Cho reveals that her parents wish her not to take part in any anti-Ministry of Magic relations, but she joins because she is determined to fight against Voldemort and avenge Cedric's murder. During the secret meetings, however, she has her ups and downs; she gets nervous when Harry approaches her, causing her to singe her friend Marietta Edgecombe's robe sleeve with a mispronounced Expelliarmus Charm, but she is later able to conjure a corporeal swan Patronus. Cho initiates a kiss with Harry under some mistletoe after the last D.A. session before the Christmas holidays; much to Ron and Hermione's amusement, Harry describes the kiss as "wet."
On Valentine's Day, Harry and Cho go out on a date to Madam Puddifoot's, but her sustained grief over Cedric's death, her ill-founded jealousy over Harry's friendship with Hermione, and Harry's lack of knowledge about girls all make for a miserable experience. Their relationship is damaged after the outing, and it ends permanently when Dumbledore's Army is exposed following Marietta's betrayal of the group to Dolores Umbridge. Cho defends her friend's actions by saying that Marietta simply made a mistake, and labels Hermione's secret anti-treachery jinxing of the group's list of names a "dirty trick." She chucks her broomstick to the ground in a fit of anger when Gryffindor defeats Ravenclaw in the Quidditch Cup final, and is later seen dating Ravenclaw housemate Michael Corner, fresh from his split with Ginny Weasley.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince/Deathly Hallows
Cho makes a cameo appearance in Half-Blood Prince when Harry catches a glimpse of her on the train to Hogwarts, but she hides back in her compartment with Marietta. Harry later mentions in a conversation with Ron that the two of them just "fell apart."
In the series finale, Cho demonstrates her loyalty when she returns to Hogwarts and joins other D.A. members in the Room of Requirement (transformed into a safe refuge during the Death Eaters' regime at Hogwarts), saying that she got the message that Harry had done likewise and that the D.A. was preparing to rebel against Voldemort. Harry and Cho, united by a common cause, appear on amicable and friendly terms. She shares with Harry the little information known about Ravenclaw's diadem (one of Voldemort's Horcruxes), and offers to escort Harry to the Ravenclaw common room to search for clues, but Ginny hurriedly suggests that Luna Lovegood take Harry up instead. Cho joins fellow D.A. members in the final battle against Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
Film portrayal
Cho was played by Katie Leung in the film versions of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix. Cho herself betrays the D.A. to Umbridge in Order of the Phoenix, which leads to her alienation among fellow members and causes Harry to dump her despite her multiple attempts to apologize. She is later revealed to have been under the influence of the Veritaserum potion while being interrogated by Umbridge.
Name in translations
Though some have criticised that "Cho Chang" is a nonsensical stereotype of an East Asian name, it is worth noting that the vast majority of J.K. Rowling's character names have stereotypical ethnic connotations, employ hidden jokes, or use alliteration. For example, "Igor Karkaroff" is a stereotypical Slavic name, "Seamus Finnigan" is a stereotypical Irish name, and even "Harry Potter" is a stereotypical English name. The difficulty in the case of Cho is that it is impossible to precisely pinpoint her ethnic origin from her name: even though the surname Chang (張/张/장) is most commonly found in China or Korea, there are no common given names that sound like "cho" in either of these countries. In fact, "Cho" is also a common Korean surname (조) and it is possible that, not being very familiar with East Asian languages or traditions, Rowling simply created a character by combining two alliterative surnames, not realising that she was committing this mistake.
In Chinese translations of the Harry Potter novels, Cho's given name is 秋, "Autumn", pronounced "qiū" ("chiou") in Mandarin and "chāu" ("chow") in Cantonese. Since the action takes place in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong was under British control for most of the 20th century, it would make 'historical' sense for Cho to be of Cantonese ancestry. Incidentally, the actress who portrays Cho in the movies, Katie Leung, is also of Cantonese ancestry.
There is also an interesting discrepancy between the Simplified and Traditional Chinese translations of the books. In the Traditional Chinese versions, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Cho's name is written as "張秋" ("Chang" first), since historically Chinese names are written with the family name first, followed by given names. However, in the Mainland Chinese version the name is written as "秋·张" ("Chang" last), which is a peculiar translation, since the middle dot is normally applied to transcribe non-Chinese names, where it is used to separate the given names, coming first, from the surname, coming last. It is possible that the Mainland translator's goal was to emphasise the fact that Cho Chang, while ethnically Chinese, is nonetheless British by birth or citizenship.
The Mainland Chinese version, when read in Cantonese, sounds close to the Cantonese word for "frustrating", which somehow fits Cho's character in the books. In addition, when pronounced with a different tone in Mandarin, Cho ("qiū") sounds close to "qiú", which means ball (球). This is a clever pun on Cho's role as the Ravenclaw Quidditch Seeker, though it is unclear whether these puns are intentionally placed there by translators, or are just mere coincidences.
"Cho" also means "butterfly" in Japanese (蝶), but since the surname "Chang" is not found among ethnic Japanese, it is probably just a coincidence. In the translations, her name is given as "Chō Chan" (チョウ・チャン), and the fact that her last name is not spelled as "Changu" (チャング), which would be more common for Western names ending in -ng (e.g. "Rowling" becomes ローリング, "Rōringu"), suggests that the translator considered the name to be of Chinese or Korean origin.
"Cho Chang" is also the name of a consonant (ช) in the Thai alphabet, though the way it is pronounced is rather different from the way it is written in Latin characters. The meaning of the letter – "elephant" – is also doubtfully well-suited for a young girl.
