Soothing Eloise re ethnocentrism, Chinese wizards

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 35917

Elkins:
> But we should probably watch out for that Captain Tabouli.  She can 
be just *vicious.* And sneaky, too.  I don't know how you sleep 
nights on that ship, Eileen.  I really don't.<

(The serene, gentle Captain Tabouli is back in the crow's nest, where she reclines peacefully, gazing out over the waves.  There is a piccolo in her hand, and from time to time she tootles a perky little tune on it which calls to mind candy and curly-haired little girls.  Just as she is putting the piccolo to her lips for a last rendition before calling out the night shift crew, she spies a small, trembling figure on the shore.  Concerned, she puts down her piccolo, and takes up her telescope.)


> Eloise, who wonders how many members of this list, apart from Tabouli, she's 
unintentionally insulted and wishes she'd kept hold of that cape so that she 
could hide her shame.

Insulted?  Me?  By ethnocentrism?  Ach, Eloise, fear not.  I spent an entire thesis arguing that ethnocentrism is perfectly normal, and have spent countless hours interviewing people and trying to get past their negative cross-cultural experiences and *express* their ethnocentric/prejudiced opinions so that I can try to interpret what cultural clashes caused them and give them advice on what to do about them (not, as they imagine, denounce them as foul racists and turn them in to Equal Opportunity).  I'm constantly discovering new dimensions to my *own* ethnocentrism.  I also firmly believe that making people feel defensive and threatened is not a good way to change their attitudes.  Attack someone's position, they defend it; undermine it (with new insights and information), and they shift it.

To er, bring this back to canon, I think JKR is having great fun with wizard ethnocentrism.  It's the ol' "visiting alien" game that lots of authors and film-makers play - showing the audience how bizarre their own culture is, seen by a total outsider.  My favorite here is the Muggle world seen through the eyes of Arthur Weasley...

Eloise:
> Having sent a post in which I suggested that the MoM suffers from 
institutionalised racism, I fell to considering asking Tabouli how Chinese 
witches and wizards get around ( clouds, like Monkey?). Then it hit me. 
Tabouli..... Australia...... I missed out a large chunk of the world when I 
suggested that broomstick travel was confined to Europe and North 
America. At this point hysteria nearly gripped me. Confessions of guilt were about to pour from my lips.<

Errrr... errr... Chinese wizards?  Not a clue, to be honest (dragonback?), though I could find out for you by asking people I know who were educated in Chinese and would be familiar with Chinese fairytales and so forth.  Unless we have someone wiser than I in the ways of Chinese mythology already on the list...?  I was raised in Australia with the Brothers Grimm and Mother Goose (though I did see Monkey as a child!).  I remember reading something on the Net about how they explained the broomsticks in the Chinese translation, but I've no idea where it was.  I remember them saying it was a problem, because Chinese children would never have heard of the flying broomstick concept...

Tabouli.


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