So while reading through the articles, I couldn't help thinking if Herge actually DID go to China for his research. I may have to find out later.
Anyway, back to the job at hand.
Herge's Research for The Blue Lotus
Herge, being the perfectionist he is, wanted to make his comics as polished and as well-made as possible. This all extended to his research into every physical and mental aspect of China he could gather, such as fashion, vehicles and even advertisements and banners. His meeting with Chang helped make all that possible, with Chang helping Herge gain a deeper and more realistic understanding into their present-day China.
The "apology" that Herge makes through Tintin: "But Chang, all white men aren't wicked. You see, different peoples don't know enough about each other. Lots of Europeans still believe... that all Chinese are cunning and cruel and wear pigtails, are always inventing tortures, and eating rotte eggs and swallows' nests...The same stupid Europeans are quite convinced that all Chinese have tiny feet, and even now little Chinese girls suffer agonies with bandages... designed to prevent their feet developing normally. They're even convinced that Chinese rivers are full of unwanted babies, thrown in when they are born. So you see Chang, that's what lots of people believe about China!"
The apology was made because Herge had made a few ignorant mistakes in his portrayal of the Chinese in his previous comic.
Personally, I believe that because of that chance meeting with Chang, Herge started to look into and understand more about the Chinese culture. Seeing as this was back in the 1930s/1940s, it would've been easy for him to simply stay ignorant and keep his completely eurocentric view of the Chinese in his comics, while still being friends with Chang. He still kept his eurocentric view in The Blue Lotus, as seen by the look of the character Chang, but through liberal use of newspaper cuttings of locales he made the world of The Blue Lotus look genuine and believable. At least, to the readers he made it look genuine.
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ReplyDeleteHi emilll - who are you? I like your comment and references but need to know your name. Maybe best to sign your name at the end of a blog or comment.
DeleteNot quite sure of your point here. in the 1930s Japan invaded China and was the obvious aggressor. What understanding of China did Herge lack? our comment does not make it clear.
What do you think Oliver?
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DeleteAccording to the second Farr extract (p.50-59), how did Hergé research China for The Blue Lotus?
DeleteAccording to the second Farr extract (p.50-59), Hergé did some research about China and it proved that the story was happened in 19th centuries China in The Blue Lotus. The use of the geography, language, literature, philosophy and religion’s name are pretty match with Chinese history on that time.
In The Blue Lotus, the drawing of background, advertising, post signs and clothing were approachable. This is shown the researches Hergé did are pretty close the reality. For example, “打倒帝国主义” was sown on the top left poster in page 6，it mean “knock down the imperialists”in Chinese. This still appeared in historical TV series a lot to represent that particular Chinese time period. The Imperialism in this phrase is not only hints “Japanese” from the Blue Lotus, but also any country under the dominate control by imperialism. China was just liberating form the dynastic rule and struggling from invade by the European and others. Therefore the impression of imperialism was not very positive to Chinese. In order to present the richness of China is not easy, people give the credit to Chang Chong-Chen, he is s Chinese student who inspires and helps Hergé with Chinese background information in The Blue Lotus. Farr suggests that Hergé did learn traditional Chinese culture, art and other from Chang Chong-Chen on his study (Farr, p.51). The conversation between character “Chang” (Tintin’s Chinese friend) and Tintin reflect the changes of Hergé perspective of China. He suggests that “different people don’t’ know each other”. I believe Chen did change the way he looking at China.
On the other hand, Hergé missed out part of the historical fact in his book. The story was about the war of Chinese against Japanese. It was happening during 1894-1895, the first Sino-Japanese war begun during that one year. Then few years later, second Sino-Japanese War started. (Wikipedia, 2012) The war took place in China. Hergé implies the incident of Moukden Railway in the story but change the location to Shanghai. (Farr, p. 52) During that time period, lot of opium got imported. Hergé represents that numbers of people smoking at Blue Lotus. Many people assume they are smoking opium in the book but opium was actually banned in china at that time. In the book of “The opium war through Chinese eyes”, the opium was smuggled by British company. In addition, the book suggests that “the import opium into China, it purchased by wholesale brokers, its retail sale to opium dens and individuals, and finally the actual offence of opium smoking.” Hergé intend to present these two events together in Tintin and dramatic the events in to more acceptable form. He suggests the Japanese is drug smuggler but British were historically the one smuggling drug into China in reality. There could be two possibilities on this point. Hergé either did not have clear understanding of Chinese history. Or he did not want to present that British is the drug smuggler to his readers! In my opinion, Hergé was born in Belgium, he had been influenced by a lots of British and American’s novels and authors. I think it could be one of the is reason for not presenting British as the drug smuggler. Otherwise, Or the publishing reason of political caricature could be another reason for this.
Reference
Farr, Michael. (1991). The BlueLotus. In Tintin: the completecompanion (pp.50-59). London:John Murray.
Hergé. (2005; 1935). TheAdventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. London: Methuen.