BEIJING -- He's your average, 11-year-old Muggle. An only child, prone to mischief whenever possible, he prefers computer games to books. Or at least he did, until he became a guinea pig for 300 million other children.
"He was being very naughty, spinning round on a swivel chair," remembers family friend Yang Jing. "Then we gave him the 'Mirror of Erised' chapter. He soon stopped spinning, and went quiet. When I tapped him on the shoulder later, he jumped. 'You frightened me!' "
Granted a privileged preview of the Chinese language "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," Liu Muran was relishing the same addictive fear the books have inspired worldwide.