Category: Week 2 Questions – Tintin

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. 

3. How would you characterise Hergé’s politics, and how did they apparently change over time?

Georges Remi, known by his pen name Hergé, shifts and changes in political views can be evidenced throughout the volumes of the Adventures of Tintin. While working for the conservative Catholic newspaper Le Vingtiéme Siécle he was mentored by one of the newspapers editors, Abbé Wallez, a Belgian priest and journalist. Wallez possessed a strict and firmly held ultraconservative ideology and was a great admirer of Mussolini (P, Assouline., 1996.). It is believed that Abbé Wallez was crucial in Hergé’s decision in the first three destinations of Tintin, Soviet Russia, Belgian Congo and the United States (P, Assouline., 1996.). As such, Hergé’s earlier ideologies and political views and beliefs were highly influenced by his mentor and demonstrated through Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo and Tintin in America, which were designed as conservative and anti-socialist propaganda with a sympathetic and endorsed perspective on colonial sentiment (Frey, H., 2004.). Later, with Tintin in America however, it was notably his first chance to explore scenarios of his choice which pressed ideologies of anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism while maintaining a clear ultraconservative ideology (Peeters, B., 2002.).

Hergé maintains these political ideologies throughout until the German occupation of Belgian in which his views on neutralism (Peeters, B., 2002.) becomes evidenced not only through his work with the Adventures of Tintin but also through several letters addressed to his long-time friend Charles Lesne and his subsequent arrest and trial following the end of the Second World War. Hergé notes his support of Leopold III’s surrender to the German military (Peeters, B., 2002.) and later is one of the few cartoonists and journalists to continue publishing their work while Brussels was under Nazi occupation (Benoît-Jeannin, M., 2001.). He worked for Le Soir, a newspaper that was under strict surveillance of the Propaganda Abteilung, where his works depicted the American portrayals as being severely underhanded while the portrayal of Blumenstein was an extreme caricature of a Jewish man that drew on popular stereotypes of Anti-Semitism (Peeters, B., 2002.).

While Hergé allowed himself an open mind in certain cultural and racial representations, as most notably seen with The Blue Lotus, his political views remain for the most part unchanged by his life experiences. That is to say, his political views remain as a conservative, neutralist with strong anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist and anti-communist ideals and beliefs.

References

Assouline, P. (1996) Hergé, Paris: Editions Plon.

Benoît Peeters (2002) A never ending trial: Hergé and the Second World War, Rethinking History, 6:3, 261-271, DOI: 10.1080/13642520210164490

Benoît-Jeannin, M. (2001) Le Mythe Hergé, Villeurbane: Editions Golias.

Hugo Frey (2004) Contagious colonial diseases in Hergé’s The adventures of Tintin , Modern & Contemporary France, 12:2, 177-188, DOI: 10.1080/09639480410001693043

In this blog, I will be discussing Herge’s early comics’ alleged connection to propaganda. In this, I will be mentioning Tintin.

Propaganda according to the Merriam- webster dictionary refers to propaganda as “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Or ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause,” (Merriam- Webster dictionary, 2020). It is no secret that the man behind the name Herge, Georges Prosper Remi, held a conservative right-wing point of view (Mountfort, 2020) with him even in his later years refusing to accept the reading of Tintin as a possible member of the LGBT community (Mountfort, 2020). However, the question is whether he as Herge brought these beliefs and in some cases prejudices into his comics? If that is the case was it in a deliberate manner in order further early conservative and far right-leaning groups or to damage opposing causes to the far right?

In regards to Herge bringing his personal beliefs into his early work one does not have to look far, unfortunately, to find Tintin in the Congo a comic that played into many racist motif’s such as the depiction of the Congolese characters as having the large red lips as well as the depiction of Tintin, the white character, taking on a role of teacher to the uneducated natives(Herge, 1991). In regards to Herge stance on the political movement at the time one can look at the comic Tintin in the land of the soviets one could only describe this comic as Herge’s expressing his anti-Bolshevik point of view with his readers which would be putting it lightly with one of the panels depicting the soviet citizens attending their election while at gunpoint(Herge, 1989).

The question now becomes whether these examples were Herge’s deliberate attempt to spread the message of the far right-wing conservatives who then evolved into a fascist movement and the anti-Bolshevik movement. In regards to Tintin in the Congo, one notes the one-dimensional discussion of the realities of the Congolese people and the Belgian colonisation Tintin in the Congo gives a sanitised version of the horrifying reality in the Congo replacing those facts with a nice comic panel of Tintin educating the native Congolese children on their home country Belgium (Mountfort, 2020) and there is a chance Herge version of the story could have been effective in spreading the pro colonisation ideas however one can’t be too clear on whether it was deliberate or not. However, in regard to Herge spreading the anti-Bolshevik movement deliberately there is no doubt in it as Herge himself has admitted to this himself (Mountfort, 2012).

Tintin being a franchise that expands over multimedia and many decades has touched so many lives mine included. As someone who read graphic novels, comic books and anime the Tintin franchise was one of the first of its kind that I came across in the side of the kiddie of the library. I loved these adventures, in particular, Explorers on the moon (Herge, 1959) as I went through a period in which I was obsessed with anything relating to space. But just because I enjoy these comics and hold nostalgic feelings towards it doesn’t mean I am unable to separate my enjoyment from the blatant propaganda and racism within Herge work. Is Tintin enjoyable yes is the connection between these texts and propaganda also yes.

References

Herge(creat). (1991). Adventures of tintin in the congo. Brussels, Belgium: Casterman, Egmont.

Herge (creat). (1959). Explorers on the moon. London, England: Methuen.

Herge(creat). (1989). Tintin in the land of the soviets. Not available: Sundancer.

Mounfort, P (auth). (2020). Tintin: the franchise and hergé’s the blue lotus (1983; 1936). Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nzwebapps/blackboard/content/ listContent.jsp?course_id=96250_1&content_id=_5273101_1&mode=reset

Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘Yellow skin, black hair … careful, tintin’: hergé and orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 33 – 49. Retrieved from https://black board.aut.ac.nz/webapps/b lackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_96250_1&content_id=_5273101_1&mode=reset

Not available. (Accessed August 2020).”Propaganda.” merriam-webster dictonary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/propaganda

How decisively did Hergé address this issue from The Blue Lotus on, and in what ways did it remain problematic?

The Blue Lotus (1935) is regarded as the most ethnographically, historically and politically rooted of all the Tintin adventures, however, ongoing analysis of his works have in turn raised some questions and confusion around genuineness and intention. Hergés wavering position historically can be contested on a number of contradicting elements throughout the albums especially in regards to ethnic stereotyping.

Hergés introduction to and the subsequent friendship with student Chang Chong-chen resulted in a shift in Hergés portrayal of othered peoples and places. He strived to achieve a greater degree of realism and displayed an awareness of the political and economic situation of the time, under the guidance of Chang (Mountfort 2012). This was in great contrast to previous albums such as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo where racist caricatures were used to illustrate African people. The Blue Lotus is thus “a turning point in Herge’s evocation of the Other” and challenges sinophobic stereotypes by advocating a Chinese view of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (Mountfort 2012).

Even with the sympathetic position Hergé takes in The Blue Lotus, it is contested that the series is still unable to completely rid of an Orientalist gaze (Mountfort 2012). It can also be questioned as to whether Hergés new approach may have actually caused more misunderstanding in that he has attempted to “make the Other more palatable to a European audience by stripping it of elements that are too powerfully Other” (Mountfort, 2012). For example, part of the sympathetic portrayal of the Chinese is that they are depicted by using neutral, European features to make them look less ‘alien’ and therefore less confronting – in juxtaposition, reductive and racist iconography is used to depict the Japanese, such as slit eyes, a ‘pig-snouted’ nose and other exaggeratedly Asian features – Hergé has attempted to humanize one by dehumanizing another (Mountfort 2012). Whether or not Hergé was conscious of the influence this would have globally, the deasianization of Chinese and the hyperasianization of Japanese in The Blue Lotus were problematic in large due to the very nature of the media form itself. These images were seen worldwide, thus simultaneously contributing to the process of further othering Japanese while also reducing Chinese to an oriental ally. It is also important to note that The Adventures were propagandistic to begin with, designed to sell ideologies rapidly (Mountfort, 2016).

Hergé raises more questions in albums published after The Blue Lotus, such as Tintin in Tibet, where he maintains a much more apolitical stance despite the wildly underway Tibetan uprising. The series is based on the rescue of Chang by Tintin, who had a dream that Chang was stranded in the Himalayan mountains. This can be understood as Hergé reinscribing the white paternalistic hero motif (Mountfort, 2012), insinuating in the same scope that non-white Europeans need to be saved, and that white Europeans will save you out of the goodness of their hearts. Hergé also does not give the same level of criticism as he did with the Japanese in The Blue Lotus – he seems to abandon what appeared to be a growing understanding of Asia in The Blue Lotus, in favour of depicting the white hero motif in an exotic land.

References

Hergé, 1935. Tintin: The Blue Lotus.

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular Franchise and Late Capital. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 1(1), 37-56.

Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘Yellow skin, black hair… Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 33-49.

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

The collections of this specific matter as far as in terms of TinTin raised a progression of issues especially as far as depiction of races, subjects of social generalizing just as well as the being of ethnic minorities. Hergé, Tintin’s creator whose name set out on the top of every single assortment (the name itself is a play on the altered and changed initials of his name, Georges Remi). His work on a wartime paper lined up with the being of the Nazis is particularly chronicled, much the same as the way that a bit of his most reliable Tintin books spread far-right plans to kids. The underlying two of these comics are ones which are regarded to be the most flawed and these were: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, first serialized in 1929, is so clear in its adversary of communist deliberate exposure that Hergé himself endeavored to smother its circulation in later years. In 1930’s Tintin in the Congo, the Belgian legend’s experience takes him to his country’s past settlement where he “assimilates” local people (who are portrayed with a blend of paternalistic bias and unremarkableness), and butchers animals as a significant tracker for events (Calamur, 2016) . In the late twentieth and mid 21st several years, a couple of campaigners and researchers portrayed Tintin in the Congo as supremacist due to its delineation of the Congolese as extremely childish and moronic (Cendrowicz, 2010). As indicated by Tom McCarthy, Hergé depicted the Congolese as “great on a basic level however in reverse and lethargic, needing European dominance” (McCarthy, 2006) In the August of 2007, a Congolese understudy: Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo filed for, submitting a complaint, documenting it in Brussels, declaring that the book was an attack against the Congolese people and ought to accordingly ought to be prohibited. Public agents analyzed and afterward began a criminal case. The issue was at long last moved to the common court in April 2010. Mondondo’s lawyers battled that Tintin in the Congo signified “a help of colonization and of racial persecution”, and Mondondo included and called it to be exteremly “narrow minded person and xenophobic” (Samuel, 2011). Asides from the conspicuous subjects and issues of prejudice, the factor of creature savagery was a major one as well and here and there this further filled certain generalizations. Tintin in the Congo shows Tintin looking at what Michael Farr depicted as “the markdown and unusual butcher” of creatures; through the degree of the Adventure, Tintin shoots a couple of gazelle, butchers a gorilla to wear its skin, pulverizes a rifle vertically into a crocodile’s open mouth, harms an elephant for ivory, stones a wild bull, and (in prior vehicles) penetrates a gap into a rhinoceros before planting hazardous in its body, exploding it from the inside.Such scenes mirror the certainty of gigantic game searching for after among prosperous guests in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1930s. Hergé later felt contrite about his depiction of creatures in Tintin in the Congo and changed into a foe of blood sports; when he made Cigars out of the Pharaoh (1934), he had Tintin gotten more familiar with a party of elephants living in the Indian wild. Philippe Goddin presented that the scene where Tintin shoots gazelle was “good to affect even the least common peruser” in the 21st century. Right when India Book House from the start dispersed the book in Quite some time in 2006, that country’s a dash of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals gave an open appraisal, and boss functionary Anuradha Sawhney passed on that the book was  “replete with instances that send a message to young minds that it is acceptable to be cruel to animals” (“Tintin in the Congo,” 2020). The issues in general for the most part were as far as confusions just as the idea of obliviousness that was of commonness.

      References

Calamur, K. (2016, June 3). Coming to terms with Tintin. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/06/tintin/485501/

Cendrowicz, Leo (4 May 2010). “Tintin: Heroic Boy Reporter or Sinister Racist?”. Time. New York City. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 6 June 2013.

McCarthy, Tom (2006). Tintin and the Secret of Literature. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-831-4.

Samuel, Henry (18 October 2011). “Tintin ‘racist’ court case nears its conclusion after four years”. The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
Tintin in the Congo. (2020, August 6). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved August 11, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_the_Congo#CITEREFSamuel2011

In what specific ways is Tintin a forerunner of late 20th – 21st century transmedia storytelling franchises?  

In Mountfort’s (2016) review, it is said that Tintin has been recalled as one of the greatest global transmedia franchises of the early twenty-first century and quickly gained popularity in popular culture through its dependence on its spread over different medias. From its first success in the magazine Le Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century) as a strip cartoon, Tintin then got published into an album a year later in the same newspaper. This spurred Tintin from being a simple strip cartoon to a more novelistic form of media. This also influenced Hergé to create more fully plotted stories for Tintin which in turn made it easier to be commodified and more appealing to the public audience. Tintin also presented new aesthetics in its medium as Tintin’s first colorized debut, The Shooting Star was published. Colorization during this period of printmaking made the product a more “premium” product and elevated its appeal for the market as it cost more to produce. This marked a big transition for Tintin, from being a strip cartoon to a finished comic book. Tintin also easily became a brand that was merchandised across puzzles, calendars, cushions, etc, further increasing its spread over different mediums. 

Moreover, Tintin was published in many different forms of media such as albums, and feature film adaptations. Tintin had rapidly gained popularity and dominated the popular culture in Europe and is seen as one of the forerunners of late 20^th-21^st century transmedia franchises from its beginnings as a simple strip cartoon to fully fleshed out comic books. Tintin’s influence on popular culture encouraged its transmediation as Tintin became published in a range of narratives of film, comics, and more.  

References 

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular Franchise and Late Capital. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 1(1). 

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

Historically, The Adventures of Tintin has had a troublesome past with its disturbing caricatures and depictions of various ethnicities, which can be traced back to the origins of Tintin in the early 1930s. In which, the original volumes of The Adventures of Tintin are heavily littered with racist caricatures.

In the volume Tintin In The Congo, originally published in the early 1930s, the native Congolese are caricatured as unintelligible and unsophisticated, displaying distinctly racist traits such as ‘juju lips’ (Mountfort, 2012). Additionally, the native Congolese only communicate through pidgin English, delivering lines such as “white master very fair…! him give half hat to each one! him very good white!” (Tintin In The Congo, 1931). Throughout this volume, Hergé frames Tintin as the white saviour sent to civilise and educate the Congolese. However, ‘Tintin In The Congo’ serves to promote the brutal colonisation of Congo in the late 19th century, that inevitably led to the death of millions of Congolese. Unfortunately, Hergé’s caricatures of Africans would continue to appear in later volumes of The Adventures of Tintin.

However, Hergé representations of different ethnicities in The Adventures of Tintin would begin to change in the mid-1930s with the creation of The Blue Lotus. The success of which can be attributed to Hergé’s newfound friendship and collaboration with a Chinese art student, Chang Chong-chen. Through this friendship, Hergé gains a competent level of knowledge and respect for Chinese culture which is then represented in the complexity and humanisation of Chinese characters and settings. While The Blue Lotus makes notable strides in its depictions of Chinese culture, it is not without its flaws. In particular, its depiction of the Japanese through the villain, Mr Mitsuhirato, as a pig-snouted and visibly subhuman (Mountfort, 2012).

After the publication of The Blue Lotus, Hergé, while not flawlessly, has been more cautious with his depictions of other cultures in his adventures. Additionally, Hergé republished earlier volumes of Tintin to address some of the troublesome content.

References.

Hergé (1931). Tintin In The Congo.

Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘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

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

Herge’s albums present several issues of ethnic and cultural stereotyping, particularly in his portrayal of Congolese people in Tintin in the Congo, and of Japanese people in The Blue Lotus. These portrayals serve to reinforce harmful colonial beliefs in the former, and as anti-Japanese propaganda in the latter.  

Several negative stereotypes of Africans are used in Tintin in the Congo. In addition to the visual codes such as the ‘juju-lips’ that are often used to caricature Africans, there is also the use of pidgin that is utilised to portray the Congolese as servile, unintelligent and childlike (Mountfort, 2012). For example, when Tintin settles an argument with a pair of Africans by cutting the hat they are arguing about in two, they say to him: ‘White master very fair! Him give half-hat top each one.’ (Hergé, 1931). This serves to infantilise the two Africans by implying that only a European would be able to solve their problems, and that they would be pleased with Tintin’s not particularly useful solution (Mountfort, 2012). The use of pidgin also reinforces a childlike and unintelligent stereotype that is often employed with non-white cultures.  

Continuing with this theme, Hergé’s portrayal of Congolese people is through a very white, imperial lens. This can be seen when Tintin is in a classroom filled with African schoolchildren, and points to a map saying, ‘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). The fact that Tintin wants to teach Congolese schoolchildren about a country that has systematically murdered their own countrymen, and then claim that it is now their country, is indicative of the white saviorism and ownership that colonists hold towards countries they have invaded. Mountfort (2016) describes Tintin in the Congo as a, “sustained valorisation of the appalling Belgian colonial enterprise,” (p. 42). 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, as cited in Mountfort, 2012).   

While colonial superiority is the theme of Tintin in the Congo, the ethnic and cultural stereotypes used in The Blue Lotus tell a different story. The Blue Lotus is often attributed to being a turning point in Hergé’s work, largely because he collaborated with Chinese art student Chang Chong-chen and so employed a more sympathetic and understanding portrayal of China during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (Mountfort, 2012). However, this has come at the expense of the Japanese, who are portrayed in a much more negative light. In addition to being the villains in the story, reductive iconography is used in the drawings of all the Japanese characters, giving them ‘slit’ eyes and other exaggerated and stereotypical Asian features (Mountfort, 2012). This becomes particularly problematic when the Chinese characters are given more ‘neutral’ features so that they look more European, and therefore less foreign and intimidating to Western audiences (Mountfort, 2012). Royal (2007) describes the practice of reductive iconography as stripping away a person’s unique identity and dehumanising them until they are ‘the Other’. This is perhaps why it was employed for the Japanese characters, as the villains of the story, and not for the Chinese, who audiences are meant to sympathise with. 

Negative cultural stereotypes are often used in Hergé’s albums, particularly for non-European ethnicities, and this could reflect Hergé’s own beliefs around these cultures. In Tintin in the Congo, it reflects the colonial superiority Belgium held over the Congo and its people, while in The Blue Lotus, it reflects the anti-Japanese sentiment felt by the Chinese, who Hergé was sympathising with. 

References 

Farr, M. (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. John Murray. 

Hergé (1931). Tintin in the Congo. Le Petit Vingtième. 

Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘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  

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular Franchise and Late Capital. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 1(1), 37-56. https://doi.org/10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.1.1.0037  

Royal, D. P. (2007). Coloring America: Multi-Ethnic Engagements with Graphic Narrative. MELUS, 32(3), 7-22. 

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

Tintin, a bestseller that was first published in 1929 and has so far gained worldwide popularity in more than 100 languages, was criticized by the public for its racist content in its early cartoons.
Hergé was active from 1930 to 1970. Since the early days of his activities were when all European powers had colonies since World War I, Hergé draws on his advocacy of imperialism in line with the media’s tone without any other concern. In particular, Tintin in the Congo, which tells an episode about Congo, a colony that was ruled by King Leopold II of Belgium, describes the natives as monkeys, and they serve Tintin and Milou as gods. They say, “The white master very fair! He gave half hat to each one!”( Mountfort, 2016). or they say, “White man very great! Has good spirits … White mister is big juju man!”. However, Hergé took steps to retrieve all the books that were sold and delete the problematic scenes in 1946, as criticism mounted that it contained white supremacy and racial bias.

The views and descriptions of Asian and Native Americans, as well as African-Americans, are not very fair.
In Tintin in the Land of Soviets,” Chinese depicted as pigtailed torturers”( Mountfort, 2016). Hergé also reveals his stereotype of the Chinese, saying that China was just a place full of cruel people who ate rotten eggs, braid their hair, and threw young children into the river.
However, by meeting his Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen, he learns about Chinese art, philosophy and history and breaks his preconceived notions about the East. Since then, Hergé has repeatedly said he regrets and regrets the racist content he wrote, and when he publishes in the U.S., he accepts the publisher’s demands and modifies racist scenes.

References

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular Franchise and Late Capital.

Hergé, (1931). Tintin in the Congo.

According to Mountfort (2012) ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ album by Hergé “has been accused of bundling right wing, reactionary and racist viewpoints into its codes of visual representation and storylines.” This is due to the representation of ‘race’, ethnic and cultural stereotyping within Tintin which were raise by readers and critics. For example, within Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1929) Hergé representation of the Chinese were of pigtailed torturers, as characters have a face that are similar to a pig. 

Later Hergé was introduced to a Chinese art student, Chang Chong-chen, they became friends and did a collaboration. Hergé were trying to make up for his mistake with the Tintin’s 5th velums, ‘The Blue Lotus’ (1935), with the story’s setting in China around the mid 1930s. In this volume, Tintin saved and befriend a Chinese boy Change and they talk about the issues of race. However, the issue of stereotyping can still be seen within his work, with the way he represented the japanese character, Mutsuhito with big teeth and round glasses.

According to Mountfort (2012) ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ album by Hergé “has been accused of bundling right wing, reactionary and racist viewpoints into its codes of visual representation and storylines.” This is due to the representation of ‘race’, ethnic and cultural stereotyping within Tintin which were raise by readers and critics. For example, within Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (1929) Hergé representation of the Chinese were of pigtailed torturers, as characters have a face that are similar to a pig. 

Later Hergé was introduced to a Chinese art student, Chang Chong-chen, they became friends and did a collaboration. Hergé were trying to make up for his mistake with the Tintin’s 5th velums, ‘The Blue Lotus’ (1935), with the story’s setting in China around the mid 1930s. In this volume, Tintin saved and befriend a Chinese boy Change and they talk about the issues of race. However, the issue of stereotyping can still be seen within his work, with the way he represented the japanese character, Mutsuhito with big teeth and round glasses.

Mountfort (2012) argues “that the pervasiveness of the series, its institutionalization in francophone culture, and its currency as a global franchise makes the question one of particular relevance at a time…” As this volume is still his “first serious attempt to depict the Other in less than pejorative terms.” It also showed Hergé courage relating to political at the time and that he is capable of changing his point of views. 

References:

Mountfort, P. (2012). ‘Yellow skin, black hair … Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 33-49. doi: 10.1386/ajpc.1.1.33_1