Beijing, Sept 21: Who knew Harry Potter was actually Chinese? Yet there was the boy wizard in glasses, black cape and brown moptop, merrily barking out mandarin to the enthusiastic masses and introducing his latest fantastic tale to the planet's largest market of young readers. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the series' fifth installment, made its Chinese-character debut today, arriving to great fanfare 10 days early because of big demand, its publishers insisted - but also, they acknowledged, to beat slapdash counterfeit versions to the market.
"We want to protect our trademark. We want the best out first," said Liu Yushan, president of the People's Literature Publishing House, the Chinese firm that has brought out all the official versions of "ha-li bo-te" tales in China.
The publisher shipped 800,000 copies of the latest volume across China in recent days, rushing to prepare for today's synchronized release, which was scheduled for the hours after the Beijing ceremony. Officials expect a sellout within a week.
As usual for China, though, preventing fakes will be a struggle.
The fantasy series by J K Rowling is wildly popular in China - an entire fake novel was written and published illegally last year - and intellectual-property pirates are known for their resourcefulness. Last week, in the western city of Urumqi, fake copies of "order of the phoenix" were already on sale.

Bureau Report