I am writing a response to the following question for this week
According to the second Farr extract (p.50-59), how did Hergé research China for The Blue Lotus?
Farr’s (1991), extract states that Herge was advised by a priest, Father Gosset to do his research properly and have a closer look at the Chinese. Hence, Hergé was introduced to a student at the 
Brussels Academie des Beaux-Arts, who was 27 years of age studying sculpture, named Chang Chong- Chen.
After having long discussions with Chang, Hergé discovered the true China as Farr (1991, p. 51), states “which went far beyond what the news paper cuttings could suggest”. Chang discussed almost all major aspects of china with Hergé , providing him all necessary and useful guidelines of the Chinese culture as well as its history, geography, language, literature, philosophy and religion (Farr, 1991, p. 51).
Farr (1991, p. 52), also states that at one point Hergé said “He made me discover and love Chinese poetry, Chinese writing… for me it was a revelation. I owe to him too better understanding of the sense of things: friendship, poetry and nature”. Chang not only informed Hergé about China’s major aspects rather he also removed the popular prejudices and helped Hergé draw a true picture of china.
According to Farr (1991), Hergé did not only rely on the pictures but also looked further to portray the real China. Chang also wrote out the historical aspects including Japanese boycott and about the unfair treaties, as shown in his Tintin series. During Hergé’s research, Chang also brought awareness to Hergé of the political situation of Asia and Japan imperialism (Farr, 1991, p. 53). As Hergé himself was interested in this subject, he wanted to explore more and also added all these aspects to his Tintin series.
Hergé’s research was well done and all came out showing realism and true understand of China with the help of Chang as well as Hergé’s own commitment and motivation by not only relying on newspapers and pictures rather looking at all aspects in more depth and from real perspective.
Reference:
Farr, M. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp. 50-59). London: John Murray
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ReplyDeleteI agree with this post, however, while it seems that Herge has gone a long way to banish Chinese stereotypes from his work, I have noticed that his drawings of the Japanese are very gauche and almost ‘evil’ looking. They are portrayed as tall, squinty eyed and with large, comic teeth – so while Herge went above and beyond to research China, he does not appear to have researched Japan at all. In fact, Farr (1991) documents this, revealing that Japanese Diplomats complained to the Belgian Foreign Ministry for being portrayed in such a way.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Herge’s close friendship with Chang Chong-Chen is to blame, and indeed, this is the story that sparked a lifelong passion for the Orient (Farr, 1991, p.52). Definitely we see in The Blue Lotus that Herge has researched his subject, by the use of colour (red is used a lot, and I stereotypically associate this colour with China), the lengthy Chinese calligraphy (written by Chang) and even the use of the Chinese language itself, for example “Hukow” (Farr, 1991, p. 50). We see a lot of popular myths about China dispelled on page 43 of the Blue Lotus, with the uncharacteristically long dialogue between Tintin and the Chinese orphan Chang Chong-Chen (yes, named after Chang). Part, if not all, of these stereotypes must have been held by Herge before meeting Chang. This is not hard to imagine given that the year was 1934 and Herge had displayed similar beliefs in earlier books, noticeably Cigars of the Pharaoh (Farr, 1991).
However, while Herge made the attempt at learning about China and the Chinese, he did not make the same effort with the Japanese. For the sake of the story perhaps, for in the Blue Lotus the Japanese are clearly the bad guys. It is mentioned in the above blog, that Herge brought awareness to China’s political situation. However, I view this awareness as one-sided and, as Tintin was read by children all over the world, and appears to be almost propaganda against the Japanese. Farr notices this, “Herge was overtly political and bluntly critical of Japan and its expansionist policies at the time” (1991, p.54) and Herge came under fire from a number of sources for having such strong views in a Catholic comic strip.
So whereas Herge did extensive research into China, I believe what he is portraying is Chang’s China, not necessarily China itself.
Farr, M. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp. 50-59). London: John Murray
Very interesting discussion! I think the author presented China well in The Blue Lotus. Firstly, as a genre, image is an important way to present narrative in comic. So, in The Blue Lotus, we can see, the character’s apparel, street views, the shops window displays and the advertisements are all originated from the real country. Furthermore, like Aafia has found that the author not only addresses these appearances but also some ideology under it. But, The Blue Lotus is not a Chinese literary work, because the language is not. So the language must carry its own culture features which do not belong to China. In this point, the work is not able to cover all the aspects of China. In fact, even the greatest Chinese writer cannot achieve it either.
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