What issues do his albums raise in terms of representation of ‘race’, and particularly ethnic and cultural stereotyping?
Within the realm of Tintin, not only has Herge managed to annoy many females, but he has also managed to gain backlash from other individuals stating that his comics show blatant racism, xenophobic themes, and ethnic/cultural stereotyping. Many of his comic volumes have landed him in deep water due to their depiction of other races and stereotypes.
One example of plain racism and stereotyping within the Tintin universe comes from two comics titled ‘Tintin in The Land of the Soviets’, and ‘The Blue Lotus. Both of these comics look specifically at the race of people from Asia (particularly China) and show them in both xenophobic ways. In the land of the soviets, two Chinese individuals are depicted as “pigtailed torturers”. In the Blue Lotus, a specific white European character shows distaste and even hate towards a peaceful Chinese man. In one of the particular scenes, a character by the name of Thomson (or Thompson) is not looking where he is going and a rickshaw driver apologetically crashes into him. After this Thomson (Thompson) begins throwing a tantrum towards the man and even says “Dirty little China-man, to barge into a white man”. This clearly depicts racism and the idea that even though this European man is in China, all the other Chinese people must look up to him because he is better and more sophisticated. Thomson (Thompson) even goes as far as to beat up Tintin because he defended the Chinese rickshaw driver (Mountfort, 2020).
Another example of racism within the comics is the idea that all dark-skinned individuals look and act a certain way. In the famous comic, Tintin in the Congo, many of the indigenous people are depicted as having “rubbery lips” and an odd way of talking, making them seem uneducated and rather mindless (Hunt, 2002). Many of the indigenous and especially African people within the comics were also displayed as spineless slaves and in one chapter of Tintin in the Congo, they even referred to Tintin as ‘white master’ (Mountfort, 2011). This not only stereotypes the indigenous people as passive slaves, but it also depicts them as incoherent and easy to slander.
Tintin in America is another comic that received a big amount of backlash due to the exploitation of native Americans. In one chapter of the comic, there is an uproar on the spillage of oils which brings the common white business to the native lands to mop up with the money. After that, it is shown that the native Americans are held at gunpoint and forced to leave their own lands (Ha, 2015).
References
Ha, T. T. (2015). Is Tintin Racist? Uproar in Winnipeg opens new chapter in the old argument. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/is-tintin-racist-uproar-in-winnipeg-opens-new-chapter-in-old-argument/article23552666/
Hunt, N. R. (2002). Tintin and the interruptions of Congolese comics. Images and Empires: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, 90-123.
Mountfort, P. (2011). ‘Yellow skin, black hair… Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of popular culture, 1(1), 33-49.Mountfort, P. (2020).
ENGL602 Tintin and the Blue Lotus [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Pop Genres 2020 