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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Chinese

Saturday, 18 August 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in Chinese

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was translated into Chinese just hours after its publication and months before the official Chinese version is released in October, according to reports, and the translators were students.

A Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was available on the Internet on 21 July, the same day it was published worldwide in English.

According to the China Daily the Harry Potter fans "worked in teams and round the clock, eating nothing but instant noodles".

The Chinese students were careful to add notices to their translations, however, stating that their versions were not for commercial use. This precaution was intended to avoid copyright violation charges - in France a teenager was recently in trouble with the law for a French translation.

Chinese publishers nevertheless are concerned it could still lead to counterfeit books, in a country where pirate copies of many forms of merchandise are commonly illegally made.

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