Although some particular groups of people have controversial opinions towards Tintin (Bentahar, 2012). However, it remains to be a forerunner in several ways. At first, the original intention to creating Tintin collections is to promote the value of religion to Belgian children and then Hergé changed his intentions and incentives to create these collections especially after the album ‘the blue lotus’.
In the album ‘‘The Blue Lotus’ (Hergé, 1936), Hergé challenges the stereotypes of orientalism and sinophobic by creating a friendship between the main character Tintin and a Chinese boy that Tintin meets in his adventure and shows the invader image of Japan in this album. Japanese government once required an apology due to its prevalence and impact of this album. In this album, Hergé tried to erase the stereotypes of Chinese from mainstream western cultures in 1936 and tried to avoid falling into the sinophobic stereotypes due to the friendship between he and Chang Chong-chen. Chang Chong-chen is Hergé’s friend that introduces Chinese line drawing, poetry and more importantly, the political situation to him. Thus, Herge’s attitude and viewpoints in this album toward China were significantly different from other western mainstream perspectives back that time. This contemporary literature reveals western countries a new view of other cultures by representing a new value and viewpoints to them.
This album reveals a brave and sturdy hero image of Tintin and his Chinese friends that he saved in China and professor Feng from a Japanese drug dealer Yamato and help Didi to recover from the madness poison. More importantly, the invader image of the Japanese had been revealed in this album which was been denied before by the Japanese government. His friend Chang Chong-chen assists Hergé to describe and create this album from a more objective and comprehensive perspective and views and thus this album was a reality-based-on collection.
References
Bentahar, Z. (2012). Tintin in the Arab World and Arabic in the World of Tintin. ALTERNATIVE FRANCOPHONE, 1(5), 41–54. https://doi.org/10.29173/af12250
Mountfort, P. (2011). ‘Yellow skin, Black hair … careful, Tintin’: Hergé and orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 33-49. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.1.1.33_1
Pop Genres 2020 