Tintin Forums

[Note: This thread is forked from one about brand names in Tintin.]

That's interesting, Tuhatkauno. I just googled "Siemens Shanghai 1930s" and found this page on the company's history pages:

http://w4.siemens.de/archiv/en/laender/asien/china.html

It seems that Siemens were very active in China at around the time of The Blue Lotus, with an office in Shanghai.

I wonder if your loosely translated phrase, "Siemens the factory of electronics" might actually mean "Siemens Power Station", as it appears that they built one in Shanghai during the 1930s - one of several they built in China. Maybe Hergé's friend Chang (who I believe did all the Chinese lettering in the book) wanted to give Shanghai's new power station a mention, in order to emphasise China's modernity.

marsbar

Typical of me, I haven't read these glorious Tintinologist-pages properly through. :/

Balthazar

I can ask her, if it could mean "Siemens Power Station". The translation can be loose because my Chinese stinks and her Finnish needs practising.

It is possible, but I think unlikely: the phrase for power station in Chinese is 發電廠 (fa dian chang); whereas the phrase found in the book (page 5, frame 9) is 西門子電機厰 (xi men zi dian ji chang), which translates to "Siemens Electrical Engineering Factory/Plant" or "Siemens Electronics Manufacturing Plant". (The literal translation is "Siemens electric motor/machine factory/plant".)

For more details about Siemens in China, see: Siemens China - our history.

Balthazar

It is not a power station but a factory - that's what I was told. I have to agree marsbar here. Did Siemens build a power plant in Peijing? Blue Lotus is situated in Pejing.

According to Siemens China, in the late 1800s Siemens built China's first power plant in Beijing*.

* = Beijing/Peking was known as Beiping/Peiping between 1928 and 1949.

Thanks for the more detailed poster translation, Marsbar and Tuhatkauno. You learn so much on this forum! It seems that Seimens had factories in that part of China as well as power stations, and I'm happy to stand corrected and drop my power station theory. I neither speak nor read any Chinese whatsoever, so it was only a guess!

I wonder if the poster was based on a real poster as a bit of documentary realism.

Tuhatkauno
Blue Lotus is situated in Pejing.
Is Pejing/Peijing the same as Beijing/Beiping/Peiping/Peking? (We could be into Finnish variant spellings of Chinese names here!) If so, I didn't understand you there. Surely the main parts of The Blue Lotus are set in and around Shanghai.

See the trivia note at the end of my post (#34) in thread "The Blue Lotus: general discussion".

Balthazar

Sorry, my mistake! Yes, the story is set in Shanghai area. (I tried to teach, think and write on this forum simultaneously, neither of them succeeded). Maybe Herge has put Pekinese buildings into the story. Take a look at pg. 26 (pg. 156 in 3 in 1), that enormous wall and gate is in Peking, or that kind of wall and gate. It is possible that same kind of constructions are in Shanghai. These things caused my embarrasing blackout.

Fascinating stuff about Siemens!
I must say, before I knew it was Siemens I'd always interpreted the poster to be an advertisement for light bulbs, mainly because it shows a picture of one. But it certainly emphasises China's transformation into a modern, industrialised nation, a change which is littered throughout the book with the telegraph poles, factory chimneys, trams, trains, etc. I've always been fascinated by the scene where Tintin goes to T'ai p'ing lu, to meet Didi. The very dark looking streets (no Siemens light bulbs here!) with the old houses and factory chimneys are strangely eerie. The old China and the new, so to speak.

One interesting point I might add is that the frame in question (frame 9, page 5 of Lotus) was originally slightly shorter, i.e. cropped right after the picture of the light-bulb. The writing on the poster originally just had the first three characters 西門子 (Siemens electrical?) The frame was enlarged when Hergé adapted it for the 62-page colour format (sometime in the 40s, I think), and the other Chinese characters were added - 電機厰 (which I'm guessing means manufacturing plant!?)

Edit: See here for the original frame.

One thing I've always wondered; who was it that drew the 'new' Chinese characters on that frame and throughout the book when Hergé adapted it, since Hergé had long lost touch with Chang by then? Perhaps that ought to be for another thread.

tuhatkauno
Sorry, my mistake! Yes, the story is set in Shanghai area. (I tried to teach, think and write on this forum simultaneously, neither of them succeeded).

No worries! You sound overworked. Time for a sauna, perhaps!

Anyway, the Shanghai location is maybe more memorable/important to us post-imperial Brits than to you non-imperial Finnish readers.

Maybe Herge has put Pekinese buildings into the story. Take a look at pg. 156 (3 in 1), that enormous wall and gate is in Peking, or that kind of wall and gate. It is possible that same kind of constructions are in Shanghai.

Yes, I don't know about the wall and gate but it seems, from Marsbar's linked example above, that Hergé transplanted at least one street from Beijing into his rendering of Shanghai.