Tintin's creator and his decades-long love for China
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E-mail Xinhua, June 3, 2017
The Blue Lotus, the fifth book in the 24-volume Tintin adventure series, relates how Tintin tracked opium traffickers all the way to China and helped the Chinese fight against the Japanese. The book has been viewed as a watershed moment in Remi's career. Critics said the book was Remi's most realistic and courageous piece, and "unarguably his first masterpiece."
Remi's exchanges with Chang were critical in the development of Tintin's adventures, said French novelist and critic Benoit Peeters.
Remi always referred to the huge influence Chang had had on him, not only as regards the writing of The Blue Lotus, but also on the general direction of all his Tintin stories, and his other works as well.
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| Herge at his desk in his studio. [Photo/Agencies] |
"I owe Chang a better understanding of friendship, a regard for poetry, respect for nature ... He was an exceptional person," Remi said in his biography. "He led me to discover and appreciate Chinese poetry and Chinese calligraphy 'wind and bone', the wind of inspiration and the bone of confident draughtsmanship."
Chang had returned to China before The Blue Lotus was published in 1936 and lost contact with Remi during World War II and after.
In the first letter to Chang in 1975 after they resumed communication, Remi thanked his friend "not only for the assistance that you brought me at that time in my work, but also for the knowledge you brought me."
"Thanks to you, my life took a new orientation ... You made me discover the qualities of things, poetry, the feeling of the unity of man and universe," he added.
In 1981, Remi and Chang, a successful artist and sculptor, finally reunited in Brussels after 46 years. Their meeting was broadcasted on Belgian national TV, drawing millions of viewers from around the globe.
Remi died in 1983. Fifteen years later, Chang also passed away. But their friendship endures in the hearts of Tintin's readers in both China and Belgium.
In 2015, China opened a culture center in Brussels and held a special exhibition on Chang's artworks and connection with Remi.
Tintin has become a national treasure for Belgium, just like the panda is one of China's. In February 2016, a panda cub was named "Dingding" in southwest China's southwestern Chongqing Municipality in honor of China's friendship with Belgium.
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