The Blue Lotus
The Blue Lotus (originally Le Lotus Bleu), first published in 1936, is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Hergé featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero. It is the second half of a story, the first half being told in Cigars of the Pharaoh. The Blue Lotus is considered to be a pivotal work in Hergé's career, marking a newfound commitment to geographical and cultural accuracy.
Synopsis
In Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin chases an international group of drug distributors through the Middle and Far East. He manages to catch them all, except for the leader, who crashes in a ravine. In order to unravel more of the network and stop the opium production at the source, he travels to China, where he is eagerly awaited by the assassins of the opium consortium.
The title, Blue Lotus, refers to the name of an opium den, itself a reference to the Blue Lotus.
Method change
Up to the writing of The Blue Lotus, Hergé's writing was mainly based on popular prejudice and on what his mentor, the abbot Norbert Wallez, had told him.
As Tintin was published in a newspaper and Hergé announced at the end of Cigars that his next setting would be China, Father Gosset, the chaplain to the Chinese students at the University of Louvain, wrote to Hergé urging him to be sensitive about what he wrote about China, being afraid his Chinese students could be shocked by some prejudice against their people. Hergé agreed, and in the spring of 1934 Gosset introduced him to Zhang Chongren/Chang Ch'ung-jen (known to Hergé as 'Chang Chong-chen'), a young sculpture student at the Brussels Académie des Beaux-Arts. The two young artists quickly became close friends, and Zhang introduced Hergé to Chinese history, culture, and the techniques of Chinese art.
As a result of this experience, Hergé would strive in The Blue Lotus, and in subsequent Tintin adventures, to be meticulously accurate in depicting the places which Tintin visited. He reached this meticulousness by painstakingly researching all his topics. When his UK publisher complained that The Black Island depicted an old-fashioned England, Hergé sent Bob de Moor across the North-Sea to redraw anything that was no longer accurate, resulting in huge changes to the album. This new-found accuratesse would become a Hergé trade mark.
As a token of appreciation, he added a fictional "Chang" ("Tchang" in French) to The Blue Lotus, a young Chinese boy who meets and befriends Tintin. Hergé mocks his own naïveté deep inside the album, when he tries to let Tintin explain to Chang that Chang's fear for the 'white devils' is based on prejudice. He then recites a few Western stereotypes of the Chinese.
Political turmoil
As another result of his friendship with Zhang (Chang), Hergé became increasing aware of the problems of colonialism, in particular the Japanese Empire's advances into China. The Blue Lotus carries a bold anti-imperialist message, contrary to the prevailing view in the West, which was sympathetic to Japan and the colonial enterprise.
Tintin is a direct witness to the South Manchurian railway incident (Mukden incident), Japan's excuse to attack and occupy China and start the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
As a result, it drew sharp criticism from various parties, including a protest by Japanese diplomats to the Belgian Foreign Ministry. However, the passage of time has since vindicated Hergé's views.
The Republic of China, was so pleased with the album that its leader at the time Chiang Kai-shek, invited Hergé for a visit.
However, because of the The ideology of Tintin, the People's Republic of China forbade the publication of the album for a long time. When it finally allowed publication in 1984, some pictures of the examples of Western prejudice were either altered or even taken out completely.
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