Thousands of Asian
Harry Potter fans are counting down to
what has been dubbed "P-day" with huge queues expected outside
bookstores and a marketing blitzkrieg featuring secret train rides,
fancy dress competitions and free breakfasts.
When the new Potter book Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows is released on Saturday, children in select
Indian homes will be sleeping in miniature castles, complete with
fortress, turret and stone-effect loft bed versions of the Hogwarts
castle.
Many less fortunate ones will be selling Harry Potter
toys, tattoos and merchandise on the streets of India,
demonstrating the all pervading reach and influence of the Potter
phenomenon.
The new book hits shelves at one minute past midnight British
Summer Time on Saturday, July 21, and anticipation, from Tokyo to
New Delhi and from Sydney to China over how the last chapter ends
may ensure it becomes the fastest-selling novel of all time.
Thousands of Potter fans dressed as wizards and witches
will queue at shops, eager to learn the fate of Harry and his
Hogwarts pals after author J.K. Rowling said she would kill off at
least two characters.
Bookstores in the Philippines are expecting sell-out crowds.
"We are hoping to get wiped out," said Rhea Llamas, a marketing
manager at Fully Booked.
In Sydney, Australia's largest city, one bookshop is taking
1,146 Potter fans aged from 2 to 84 on a steam train ride to a
secret destination before they get their hands on the new
Potter.
Gleebooks proprietor Roger Mackell said fire twirlers and
musicians awaited the passengers -- as well as some special "guest"
quidditch players.
"We've got the Durmstrang quidditch team arriving," he said.
MAGIC BREAKFAST
But Potter interest extends beyond the big towns into
Australia's Outback where stores will attract fans with
magic-themed fancy dress parties.
Stores in Taiwan and India have arranged for a "magic breakfast"
for early customers.
"The topics in the book are international topics, even though
it's not a book written in Taiwan," said Huang Hui-ling, an
official of a Taiwan bookstore chain offering a launch party and
breakfast for its first 100 visitors.
But as in Taiwan, most Potter fans in Japan will wait
for the translation, with English not being their strong point.
Kinokuniya bookshop in Shinjuku, one of the most popular places
to buy foreign books in central Tokyo, will open two hours earlier
than usual and hold a countdown until the book goes on sale at 8:01
AM local time.
With reports of Internet leaks about the book's ending, some
fans say they have stopped checking emails and surfing.
"It's just two more days. I don't want anyone telling me the
ending," said Aniket Desai, a young Potter fan in Mumbai
who said he will reach the bookstore in a Potter T-shirt before
sunrise for his pre-ordered copy.
Beejay Bautista, a "faculty member" of Hogwarts Philippines, a
local fan club, said he will stay up Saturday night to finish the
book.
"There will be no rest. I'm wary of spoilers," the 25-year-old
computer analyst said.
In China, authorities removed pages from Web sites that
published reports and photographs of what they said may contain the
eagerly awaited seventh and final installment of the Harry
Potter book series.
Similar "leaks" were reported by the media in the United States,
but earlier this week a spokeswoman for Potter's British
publisher Bloomsbury called them "fan fiction."
The Potter books have been translated into 64 languages
in more than 100 countries and the first six have together sold 325
million copies.
(Agencies CRI.cn July 20, 2007)
