DRESSED as “Harry Potter” characters at a party Friday in Beijing, guests sat in four groups representing the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

    Lin Pin and other Chinese Potterphiles costumed as characters such as Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were attending a bash for the 15th anniversary of their alter egos’ arrival in China. They were also toasting British author J. K. Rowling and her protagonist Harry Potter, who happen to share a birthday (she turned 50 Friday, he would have been 35).

    The scrawny, bespectacled wizard boy has conjured up a big fan base in China and boosted the development of Chinese children’s literature since the first of seven fantasy novels was translated into Chinese and printed by the People’s Literature Publishing House (PLPH) in 2000.

    The series has sold more than 16 million copies nationwide, according to PLPH, and remains an annual best seller.

    “I didn’t expect the series to be so popular in China. It’s a miracle,” Wang Ruiqin, the editor behind the Chinese edition of the series, said at the party, organized by PLPH.

    She still remembers how her team beat a crowd of Chinese competitors bidding for the right to publish the books, and how they stayed up rendering Rowling’s fantasy into idiomatic Chinese. But the most exciting moment was the series’ debut Oct. 6, 2000.

    “When I got there at 9:30 a.m., people had lined up halfway around the block at Wangfujing Bookstore. Some of them arrived at 5 a.m.,” she recalled.

    More than 1,500 copies were sold within two hours, setting a record for the bookstore in Beijing’s main shopping district.

    Lin, 27, calls himself a “super Potterphile.” The doctoral student studies literature at Peking University and has written essays on “Harry Potter.”

    Lin also plays Quidditch, a sport invented by Rowling.

    Students from Beijing, Shanghai and other cities are planning the first National Quidditch Cup, joining in the fun of their American peers who adapted the sport from flying on broomsticks to running on football fields. “Hamifengzi,” or “Lunatic Harry Fan,” has 140,000 followers on Weibo. The anonymous account posts news on the books and adapted film series, translates tweets by Rowling into Chinese and shares fan pictures and video clips.

    In the past decade and a half, “Harry Potter” has boosted the development of children’s literature in China.

    “Chinese children’s literature didn’t take off until 15 years ago,” said Yan Xiaoli, a senior publisher. “‘Harry Potter’ broadened the horizons of Chinese writers and parents. They got to know what children really liked to read. Meanwhile, publishers began to pay attention to books overseas.”(Xinhua)