Tintin Forums

I am very interested in the depiction of foreign countries of Tintin. In fact, it is a important reason why I become a Tintin fan, and it helped me to gain knowledge of places all over the world. I think it's both interesting and important to discuss whether the depiction is accurate, especially in the respect of culture. As Herge has been to few countries outside Europe when he drew most albums, and some of his depiction is based on only one or two book(s), I wonder whether he had some misunderstanding. I am just guessing, and so I want your discussion. You don't need to be a native to answer the question; just share your opinions and impression openly!
As for the contents about China, I think the depiction of China in The Blue Lotus is quite successful. As I have never been living in the 1930s, I can't tell it by impression, but it fits very well with the books I read and the impression of elder people. As for Tibet, to be honest I know very little about that place, and I don't know whether the depiction of Tibetan people is accurate.
P.S. I am working on an essay about the Arabian culture in foreign eyes, and I think your discussion may help a little...

Considering that he'd not visited many of the locations in his books I think many of the depictions are remarkably accurate. Michael Farr has called him an 'armchair traveller'. As you say, some of his references for the earlier books were taken just one or two books (such as Soviets, Congo, America and Cigars). You mention that The Blue Lotus is quite successful in it's depiction. It's mainly because after Hergé had announced he was going to send Tintin to China he had a letter from a teacher of Chinese students in Belgium who was worried that the depiction of China might end up too stereotyped like the earlier adventures. He asked Hergé to do some research first and introduced him to a Chinese student called Chang. Hergé and Change became great friends, and it was Chang who helped him with painting Chinese characters and gave him an insight to China at that time. That's why that book is so much more successful than the previous ones. I guess that experience had stayed with Hergé and he put a lot more effort into researching the locations first (some more than others), using the National Geographic, newspaper cuttings, books and other people's experience to produce a more accurate representation. Sometimes he would get things wrong (such as drawing bananas upside down in The Broken Ear), but the depictions of the people, flora and fauna were as faithful as they could be from someone who hardly ever left his drawing board.

As for myself, I travelled quite a bit in my early twenties (over 20 years ago) and visited a few places Tintin has been, although nowhere as remote as some of the places Tintin visited in Tibet or South America. I think the scene where Tintin arrives at a remote village in Tibet and all the children follow them about has a ring of truth about it. The region didn't have many Western travelers at that time and so they must have seemed as if they were from outer space. It was still a bit like that in the 1980s in some of the places I visited. I guess the world has changed a great deal since the books were written so it's difficult to gauge how accurate Hergé was, unless you're able to ask somebody who was there at the time.

I think your remark is very good, Harrock n roll. It is certain that the natural scene such as flora and fauna is depicted rather accurately, for Hergé can gain knowledge from the books and other sources such as photographs and newspapers. However, the impression of culture cannot be gained easily if you have never been to there.
I have just noticed that the 4 books about Arabic countries have never been translated into Arabic, except The Crab with the Golden Claws. I wonder whether it is because the Arabian people think the depiction is not faithful...

The depiction of other countries in the Tintin series is both interesting and stereotypical and sometimes misinformed. If I recall correctly, in the first book ("Tintin in America"), the cars drive on the left, because Herge mistakenly believed that, America, as a former British colony, would follow British driving-practices.

Countries vary in terms of accuracy. But I agree that the depiction of 1930s Shanghai was very realistic. The Shanghai depicted in the 'Blue Lotus' is the Shanghai International Settlement that existed between 1843-1943. It was FULL of nightlife, gangsters, opium-dens and all other kinds of things. It would've looked very similar to what is depicted in the book, including the presence of the rickshaws in the streets.

Herge's Chinese friend was Zhang Chong-Ren. He died in 1998. If I remember rightly, Herge named the character of Chang (the little Chinese boy) after his friend.

I am Manchu and I lived in Tibet for a long time. I feel like Herge tried hard but his depiction of China is still not very accurate.

Herge's work of Chinese dragons are rather awkward without antlers. Chinese people don't bow like Wang does. Manchurian Incident (9.18 incident) took place in Manchuria, not in Shanghai. Tibetans in Tintin in Tibet look rather like the ethnics in Xinjiang.