JK Rowling: Harry Potter’s Cho Chang actor Katie Leung shares ‘thoughts’ on author’s ‘anti-transgender’ tweets

Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang in the Harry Potter franchise, has shared her “thoughts” after readers criticised JK Rowling’s chosen name for the book series’ main Asian character.

The character’s name started trending on Twitter after users called out the author’s Black, Asian, and minority ethnic representation in the book series following a string of controversial tweets relating to trans rights.

The author was met with a backlash after calling out an article’s use of the phrase “people who menstruate”, writing: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

Leung, noticing people were criticising the name of the character she played in the wake of Rowling’s tweets, wrote: ”So, you want my thoughts on Cho Chang? Okay, here goes...”

However, instead of voicing her opinion on the name, the Scottish actor shared several links to organisations helping Black trans charities to subtly show she disagreed with Rowling’s views.

Leung used the hashtag: “#AsiansForBlackLives.”

The actor was not the only one to express her views, with many celebrities – including Jameela Jamil, Sarah Paulson and Hozier – prompted to share their own on Twitter.

Following criticism for her initial tweets, Rowling said that she supports transgender rights and took issue with being labelled a “TERF”, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

Diversity in Harry Potter came into question once again earlier this week after Rowling added herself to the huge list of entertainment figures who vocally supported John Boyega following his powerful speech at a Black Lives Matter protest in London.

Rowling has been frequently called out for the lack of diversity in Harry Potter, and for suggesting that the character Hermione Granger could retroactively be read as being black.

Many also felt that revealing that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore to be gay after the final Harry Potter book was published was “character revisionism”.

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