Fans can buy similar posters featuring Malfoy’s face for 11 yuan ($2.64) on e-commerce platform Taobao.
Before the Lunar New Year, Chinese households typically decorate their doors with couplets, which feature writings calling for health and prosperity. Others cover their houses with fuzi, red square papers printed with the Chinese word for prosperity.
This year, videos across social media show homes with posters carrying well-wishing phrases alongside the face of Malfoy, as well as other Harry Potter characters, including Severus Snape.
A short video on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, shows one person sticking a Malfoy-faced fai chun – the traditional red paper – on their fridge, alongside the caption “You’re a genius”. The clip garnered 60,000 likes.
“Year of the Horse’s blessing, so stick on a Malfoy,” said another user on China’s Rednote.
The Year of the Horse begins on February 17, following the Year of the Snake, another animal that represents Malfoy given that it is the symbol of Slytherin, the character’s house at Hogwarts.
Foreign films and books often struggle to make any money in China because of its strict limitations on international projects.
However, hundreds of millions of Harry Potter books have been sold in the country, while a re-release of the first film of the series in 2020 grossed more than 90 million yuan in three days.
Warner Bros, which manages the Harry Potter franchise, has agreed to develop a studio tour in Shanghai mirroring the experience in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, where the original movies were filmed.
A Universal Studios theme park in Beijing also features The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a section dedicated to Harry Potter-themed rides and attractions.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.
