As the Year of the Horse approaches, an unexpected face has become a symbol of luck in China: Harry Potter’s infamous school rival, Draco Malfoy.
The pale-haired antagonist from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling series is appearing in festive decorations across the country ahead of Lunar New Year celebrations. The connection is linguistic: Draco’s name in Mandarin, “Ma Er Fu,” contains “Ma” (马), meaning horse, and “Fu” (福), meaning good fortune—together, it suggests that horses bring prosperity.
Videos on Chinese social media show homes adorned with red banners, or fai chun, bearing traditional well-wishing phrases. This year, many of these festive decorations feature Malfoy’s signature smirk front and centre. In Henan province, a shopping mall displays electronic couplets with the character at the heart of the design, while a Xiaohongshu user shared photos of red paper squares depicting Malfoy handed to colleagues to wish them luck.
The Year of the Horse begins on February 17, replacing the Year of the Snake—an amusing coincidence for Malfoy, whose Hogwarts house, Slytherin, is symbolized by a snake.
The Harry Potter series has long been popular in China. By 2007, nearly 10 million translated books had been sold, even before the release of the final instalment. When a remastered version of the first movie re-released in 2020, it earned $27.6 million at Chinese cinemas, according to Xinhua.
Tom Felton, who portrayed Malfoy in the films for a decade starting in 2001, highlighted the character’s unusual Lunar New Year crossover on Instagram, sharing an image of a massive banner featuring him in wizarding attire.
On Douyin, China’s TikTok, videos of Malfoy-themed fai chun placed on refrigerators have gone viral, with clips garnering tens of thousands of likes. Some sellers have even started offering the posters on e-commerce platforms like Pinduoduo, where buyers have greeted them with messages like, “The fu has arrived” and “Bring me some fortune in 2026, young master.”