[HPforGrownups] Cho Chang's Name

[Polgara TheSorcess]

No: HPFGUIDX 35955

Hi all, newbie posting for the first time here after lurking for about a 
month. While I do read Chinese books with no trouble at all, I did read the 
HP books in US version, so I don't know how Cho's name was actually 
translated in the Chinese version of the books. With that said, here's a 
little specualtion of my own.

The last name Chang is a common last name among the Chinese with no 
particular association on its own. The sound Cho is given to many Chinese 
characters, including some that do not acutally sound like "cho" but have no 
other closer sound in English. Just off the top of my head, the more common 
characters that I would think might be female names are:

- autumn
- ball, not very feminine, but she is on the Quidditch team
- hard to translate, a word most often used to mean being good with one's 
hands at some feminine or artistic task, such as painting or embroidering, 
but often associated with having an intelligent mind as well
- sadness, sorrow
- vengence, not usually used as a name obviously, but if anyone want to spin 
a thread about how she becomes bend on vengence for Cedric's death...

My personal favorite is the third one, but if anyone knows how the name was 
actually translated in the Chinese version that would settle the question 
rather effectively. Of course, we are assuming Rowling would know anything 
about Chinese characters. I used to think she just made it up myself, but 
it's always fun to speculate.

Polgara

>"There has been a lot of speculation about Cho Chang's name, much of it 
>based on the assumption that J.K. Rowling knows what Cho Chang means in 
>Chinese."
>
>My question is:  does this imply that Cho Chang actually *has* some kind of 
>meaning in any sense?  I always assumed it was pretty much a made up name 
>meant to convey to the reader that Cho is Chinese.
>
>laura

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com