2. What issues do his albums raise in terms of representation of ‘race’, and particularly ethnic and cultural stereotyping?
Herge’s albums illustrate a number of racist stereotypes towards certain ethnic and cultural groups. His ideologies present cultural stereotyping that are apparent in his works, Tintin in the Congo, and The Blue Lotus. Unseemly, his negative portrayal of targeted ethnicities such as Congolese and Japanese peoples raises concerns to readers due to the apparent support of colonial beliefs.
Herges’s portrayal of Colognese people is observed through an imperial vision, often using white saviorism as the focal lens. We see this through Tintins addressing of African students by teaching them about Belgium. He says “ Today I’m going to talk to you about your country: Belgium!’ (Hergé, 1931). Belgium’s occupation and colonisation of the Congo saw the Congolese population halve from twenty million to ten million – a genocide carried out through torturing and executing civilians (Mountfort, 2012). Tintin insists that Belgium is their own country despite knowing the colonial history; denying the Colognese people their basic right of distinguishing their land as free-standing at any point in time. Herge almost fetishises white saviorism throughout his works, and uses it to contribute to the ideology of normalising colonisation, ignorantly disregarding the many consequences it followed including the homicide of Congolese peoples. He contributes to promote racism by incorporating the paternalist mindsets that colonists embrace towards the people of the land they have colonised. Mountford suggests that even Hergé himself justified his portrayal of the Congolese as being through the eyes of the paternalism that existed in Belgium, meaning they viewed their colonisation as an act of saviorism rather than invasion (Farr, 2001, cited in Mountfort, 2012).
Visual codes such as describing Africans with ogling eyes and juju lips within Tintin in the Congo evidences for racial discrimination. “..Tintin in the Congo, as evidenced in various frames that depict Africans as virtual slaves with, again, exaggerated ‘ju-ju’ lips – representations which persisted unreconstructed into the colour version of 1955 (Hergé 1971a: 13)” The descriptions are xenophobic and alienates the Africans from the white, immediately sentencing them to ethnic stereotypes. His representation of ‘native’ Africans is of the grossly caricatured ‘juju-lipped Negro’ variety that mars early Disney creations, along with many other early/mid-century cultural artifacts. Bundled with these visual codes is the whole raft of colonialist prejudices: Africans as, variously; credulous, untrustworthy, bloodthirsty, servile, lazy and childlike (Mountford, 2012). This ideology is supported by an example in which the use of pidjin within Tintin in the Congo is used; Tintin cuts a hat into two that a pair of Africans were arguing over, he proceeds to state ‘White master very fair! Him give half-hat top each one.’ (1930; Hergé 1991: 47). There is an implication that the use of pidjin makes the Africans sound uncivilised and dull-witted which is a common stereotype associated with all those who do not speak according to ‘white standards’ This incident makes Afriacans look foolish and implies that there is a great need for the white to save them. That Africans could not possibly resolve their issues without the interference of a European to provide a solution. The pidgin, which is modified in the later colour editions, merely adds insult to injury. (Mountford, 2012)
Blue Lotus is another one of Herge’s works that summon yet another culture to prejudice; the Japanese to cultural stereotypes. Despite Herge’s collaboration and friendship with a Chinese student, his understanding and empathetic nature towards Chinese after learning about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, failed to disassociate a culture with a minority. “If we can assume that racism can be defined by the identification or disengagement from a group of peoples, then we can begin to see in The Blue Lotus the deasianization of the Chinese versus the hypera-sianization of the Japanese”. (Lasar-Robinson n.d: 6)The Japanese are portrayed under a stereotypical light, proclaiming them as the villains- the use of iconography exhibits the Japanese with ‘slit’ eyes as well as other exaggerated features that are lessened for the Chinese to represent them as more ‘neutral’ catering to the Europeans, appearing as less ‘alien’ in comparison to the Japanese. (Mountfor ,2012). This racial typing anticipates intensifying anti-Japanese graphiation as the war progressed, typified by Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates (1934−42) strip (see Mullaney 2007). Herge skillfully used imagery to allow readers to side with the Chinese by attempting to merge their identity with that of the Europeans in order to seem valued while on the other hand, alienating the Japanese through dehumanising and exaggerating their physical features so much so, that they become ‘extraterrestrial’; a common tactic used by Herge in order to strip of ones identity, and subdue them to cultural and ethnic stereotyping as seen in ‘Tintin in the Congo’.
Hergé, 1935. Tintin: The Blue Lotus.
Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘Yellow skin, black hair… Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 30-48.
Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular Franchise and Late Capital.
Farr, M. (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. John Murray.
Pop Genres 2020 