Tintin - 'The Blue Lotus' (Week One)

Funnily enough the one comic which my family actually owns is Herge’s ‘The Blue Lotus’.

Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media?

It depends on where the audiences understanding of the comics are at before you can decide what age comics are aimed at. Herge himself even said that Tintin was aimed at “all young people aged seven to seventy-seven.” “Each find their own level of understanding and appreciation.” (Farr,1991).

In Herge’s work alone there are many prime examples which portray the audience of ‘The Blue Lotus’ to be of ‘adults’ per se. One example which I found on page three of ‘The Blue Lotus’ is of a typical stereotype generally associated with the Asian race. “I see another man … with yellow skin … his hair is black … he wears glasses.” Generally young children would not understand such a description of a person and it is not until our knowledge matures as an adult that we can begin to understand that Herge is trying to describe the ‘stereotypical’ features of an Asian man. In these instances, I can confidently say that these particular comics are aimed towards adults.

However on the other hand, there are frames from ‘The Blue Locus’ which would be more suited to a younger audience. On page four of this particular comic Tintin is trying to stuff his suitcase with his belongings. His dog, Snowy, can’t be found anywhere and in a later frame we see the suitcase fly down the stairs with Snowy flying out from underneath all of Tintin’s belongings within the suitcase. A younger audience would find this quite entertaining and be more easily amused by such events over say an adult audience.

Herge’s comics are definitely aimed at both the younger and older generations and both for very different reasons. Michael Farr states that “The child will be gripped by the excitement of Tintin, the comedy even ... the adult will additionally find political satire and parody, puns and prescience.” (Farr, 1991).

So even though we cannot say that Herge’s comics are specifically aimed towards adults or specifically aimed towards children, it is fair to say they are aimed at both. The content within the comics will also determine who the audience is.
In saying this, I believe that comics are most definitely aimed at both adults and children and that both can enjoy them, yet both in different ways.

Racism in Herge’s work

Another point I found to be quite fascinating within the Tintin series was the ‘It’s adults only for Tintin and Snowy’ article. There was a problem with the comic ‘Tintin in the Congo’ as it apparently had racist connotations aimed towards black people. Border’s decision to remove this title from the children’s section was done because African’s were being portrayed as ‘sub-human’. It is fair to say that back in 1931 when this comic was written Herge would have had no intention of making racial claims in his comics. In fact Herge wanted to do the complete opposite and move far away from prejudices as possible. “To date, the foreign lands to which Tintin had travelled and their peoples conform to the pictures of clichés held in the 1920’s-30’s.” (Farr,1991). The language and pictures which Herge’s chose to use in his comics would have been acceptable within society in the 1920’s and 30’s.
In ‘The Blue Lotus’, Herge “strove to counter myths by presenting as accurate picture of China as possible,” as the “sweeping away of prejudices was so important to Herge.” (Farr, 1991). This emphasises Whitcoulls point on how Border’s made a “storm in a teacup” (New Zealand Herald, 2007) by removing ‘Tintin in Congo’ from the children’s section of the store as there was no intentional racism meant.
As explained in Farr’s extract of the history of the ‘The Blue Lotus’, Herge tried his best to “sweep away from prejudices” that he even “undertook research and really interested [him]self in the people and countries to which [he] sent Tintin out of a sense of honesty to [his] readers.” (Farr, 1991).

How did Herge research China for ‘The Blue Lotus’?

This leads me onto my last point of how and why Herge put so much effort into researching for ‘The Blue Lotus’. As mentioned earlier Herge wanted to sway away from all the clichés and stereotypes which surrounded the Chinese race. And to do this he invested in a lot of quality time spent with his close friend Chang Chong-chen who taught him the ways of the ‘real’ Chinese history and life. Each detail in ‘The Blue Lotus’ reflected Herge’s new found knowledge of the Chinese race “giving the setting a compelling authenticity”. (Farr, 1991). By allowing Chang to supervise the representations of all the little detailing of Chinese culture such as ‘restaurant signs’, vases’ ‘screens’ and even ‘ wall hangings’, through to the accuracy of China’s political state, Herge’s research for ‘The Blue Lotus’ was definitely not done in vain.

Reference List
Farr, Michael. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murray.
Herge. (2005; 1935). The Adventures of Tintin: the Blue Lotus. London: Methuen.
New Zealand Herald. (2007). It’s adults only for Tintin and Snowy. Auckland