The early Tintin adventures, particularly Tintin in the Congo, were racist. Though the mind set they incorporated was common throughout the European and colonial powers. What redeemed Herge and his work was his ability to recognise and overcome his own prejudices. He became an ambassador of hope and for much his life, Herge worked to educate his readers about different cultures of world and show how, regardless of race, creed or colour, we are all the same.

Unfortunately the message Herge embodies – that we can overcome our fears and predjuices to be better human beings – is lost on people from the far left and the far right of politics. Calls for his books to be banned miss the point and play into the hands of extreme right wing racists.

Black People “look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles”.

This quote from the UK’s Commission for Racial Equality ( CRE ) is the title of a thread from the white supremacists site Stormfront.org [ WARNING: This is a site dedicated to 'White Pride World Wide' and all the hate and stupidity that involves ]. The idiots who frequent the site have focused on using the CRE’s statement and have spouted some predicable racist claptrap in support of Herge and Tintin.

This subversion of the Herge’s work in support of such a perverse agenda is sickening and it highlights the dangers of either side of the political spectrum focusing on a narrow aspect of an author’s work. The subject of Herge’s and racism is complex, inexplicably tied to the culture he grew up in and above, a message of hope and humanity.

Note: Clicking the links to the Stormfront web site will cause offense to all right-thinking people. In the HTML, I’ve have marked them as ‘no follow‘ so that the search engines will ignore these links.

Herge’s personal and spiritual growth in understanding other cultures and combatting his own prejudices is remarkable. He grew from a young man writing the colonial tracts like Tintin in the Congo to the great writer who received the Dalai Lama’s Truth of Light award for his work on Tintin in Tibet.

To celebrate this I’m declaring today Chang Day in memory of the fictional Chang in The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet and the real life Zhang Chongren who inspired him. Zhang Chongren visited Belgium in early 1930’s, became close friends with Herge and his influence helped shape the next Tintin 70 years of Tintin.

Zhang returned to China in 1936 and the pair lost contact during the turbulent years of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It wasn’t until the 18th March 1981 that the two were reunited.

Let’s celebrate cultural diversity and the undying bond of friendship – Chang Day – March 18th.

Today marks 50 years since the exile of the Dalai Lama from Tibet.

His flight and exile from his native country followed an unsuccessful uprising against the invading Chinese army. Since then, the Dalai Lama has campaign for justice for his people. According to the Dalai Lama, five decades of repression has caused untold suffering amongst the ordinary people of Tibet.

It is somewhat ironic that in The Blue Lotus, Herge went out of his way to depict the Chinese people as being a sophisticated, civilized people, repressed by the brutal Japanese. Eighty years on, it is the Chinese who are the brutal invaders, repressing the Tibetan people who Herge depicted in his greatest book, Tintin in Tibet.

Campaign for a Free Tibet

• Great interactive analysis of the page composition in Tintin in Tibet. Link
• The Age has a piece on the Uncanny Valley and how it might effect the Tintin Movie. Link
• The International Motor Show of Barcelona has a ‘Tintin and his Cars’ exhibition. For more on Tintin and cars, have look at this fantastic fan site. Link
• Australian cartoonist has the legal right to use Tintin in satirical cartoon. Link
• Tintin in Cuba? Link
• On Flickr, the portrayal of the Chinese is examined. Link and link.

Three Tintin Books to Become Movies

According to Variety, three books have been selected as the basis of the Tintin movies. But which three? The books were mostly written and set in the 1930’s to 1950’s and not many of them will update. Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon seem pointless 40 years after Neil Armstrong first walked there. Many of the books have social or cultural aspects that are not popular nowadays such as The Blue Lotus which is heavily anti-Japanese and the Crab with the Golden Claws is about oil and the middle east. Other books just won’t work as popular films, e.g. The Castafiore Emerald in which nothing happens.

Here is my guesses at the three Tintin movies

• King Ottokar’s Sceptre – Has espionage, puzzles and Borduria, a Nazi-like country next door
• The Calculus Affair – Has all the main characters, secret technology, kidnapping features Borduria & Syldavia from King Ottokar’s Sceptre
• Tintin in Tibet – Features a strong storyline, daring feats, lucky escapes, and a child. My money is on Speilberg directing this one