Hong Kong
—
As the Year of the Horse approaches, an unexpected face has emerged in China as a symbol of good fortune. It’s the villain of the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
Draco Malfoy, Potter’s privileged teenage nemesis from J.K. Rowling’s hugely successful book series, is appearing in festive displays across the country ahead of the Lunar New Year.
Luck is in the name. “Malfoy” is transliterated in Chinese as “Ma Er Fu”. The first word “Ma” means “horse” (horse) and the third word means “fortune”. If you read this together, it seems like horses bring good luck.
Videos on Chinese social media show people decorating their homes with red posters with wishful phrases, known as Faichun or Chunlian, in an annual festival ritual.
Only this time, the message wishing wealth and health is accompanied by the signature smile of Hogwarts’ blond bully.
The Year of the Horse begins on February 17th with the end of the Year of the Snake (an animal equally fitting for Malfoy as it symbolizes Hogwarts’ house of Slytherin).
The “Harry Potter” series is a big hit in China. A Chinese publisher told state broadcaster CCTV the same year that nearly 10 million copies of the translated book had been sold even before the final installment was released in 2007.
When the remastered version of the first Harry Potter movie was released again in 2020, the film collected $27.6 million at the Chinese box office, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Tom Felton played Malfoy in the Harry Potter series for 10 years starting in 2001, and his most famous role has made an unexpected crossover.
He posted on his Instagram a photo of a giant banner depicting a character in a wizard’s costume hanging in the atrium of a shopping mall in China.
A short clip on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, shows someone pasting a Faichun with Malfoy’s face on a refrigerator. The video received over 60,000 likes, with another user commenting: “You’re a genius.”
Some people in China have found an opportunity to make a few dollars by selling their posters on Chinese e-commerce platforms.
“Fu is here,” one customer wrote on Pinduoduo, another e-commerce platform.
“Good luck in 2026, young man,” they said.
