Week 2: Tintin

What issues do his albums raise in terms of representation of ‘race’, and particularly ethnic and cultural stereotyping?

The Adventures of Tintin created by a Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi most commonly known under his pen name Hergé was seen to be a very controversial because of racist viewpoints that were displayed in his comics most prominent in the volume ” Tintin In The Congo” and “The Blue Lotus”

In the comic “Tintin In The Congo” published in 1930 at the time it was successful in Belgium and many white occupied countries until the late 20th century when it was seen to have a racist colonial point of view because of its illustrations of the natives as ‘monkeys’ and ‘savages’. In the comic it shows Tintin to be the savior that is civilizing the Congolese in making Tintin seem as the savior it is promoting colonization. For example in the comic Tintin is in a classroom with African children and points at the map and says “Today I’m going to talk to you about your country: Belgium! which shows how Belgium colonizers were trying to brainwash the natives to erase their culture and language and become like the white colonizers who cleverly killed their ancestors and are now claiming that it is their land. Another example is when the Congolese are talking in pidgin English saying “white master very fair…! him give half hat to each one! him very good white!” (Tintin In The Congo, 1931) Which shows how they had started communicating in the language of the colonizers and not their own another point we can take from this example is the fact that just because they were given half a hat they feel very grateful but they forget about all the things the colonizers had taken away from them like their country and most importantly their freedom. The reason for this being is most likely because of the brainwashing that occurs when white colonizers take over a land of another race they wash away the native peoples identity just as Tintin was lying to the school children that they are from Belgium and not the natives of land he is an outsider of.

Hergés later published “The Blue Lotus” which was seen to be a change in ideology which can be credited to Hergés and his new friendship with Chinese art student, Chang Chong-chen. While being with his new friend Hergés starts to gain knowledge and respect of his friends Chinese culture and sympathetic towards the Chinese during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (Mountfort 2012) This new change in Hergés ideology is seen in “The Blue Lotus” where the Chinese are sympathized with and even the character Tintin has a Chinese friend in the comic so the audience favour the Chinese. Although there is a change in Hergés ideology it isn’t a huge change because even though he has shown the Chinese in a better light he has excluded the Japanese and shown them in negative light and made the villain of the comic a Japanese man named ‘Mr Mitsuhirato’ and illustrated him as a “pig-snouted and visibly subhuman” (Mountfort, 2012). Which shows although Hergés has been introduced to asian culture he is still selective and his comics were not inclusive of all asians just Chinese because of his friendship with his Chinese friend Chang Chong- Chen.