The blue lotus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Blue Lotus ( French title: Le Lotus Bleu ) is a Tim-and-Tintin - comic album of the Belgian cartoonist Hergé . The album first appeared in August 1934 in Le Petit Vingtième magazine .

action

After their last adventure ( Cigars of the Pharaoh ) are Tim and Struppi as guests of the Maharaja of Gaipajama in India , to make holiday. The action begins when Tim hears an incomprehensible message over a shortwave transmitter . Shortly afterwards he receives a visitor from Shanghai . But the visitor is hit by a poison arrow marked with Radjaidah. This poison drives everyone crazy, so that they just babble and dance around pointless stuff. The man manages to explain to Tim that he has to go to Shanghai to see a certain Mitsuhirato .

While looking for this man in Shanghai, Tim sees a Chinese rickshaw bumping into a white man named Gibbons. After Tim prevented him from doing anything to the Chinese - the white man calls it chastisement - Gibbons vows retribution , and the Chinese thanks Tim.

When he arrives at the Japanese Mitsuhirato, he tells him that he has to go back to India immediately because it is too dangerous in China - especially because of the locals. When Tim leaves Mitsuhirato, he is shot at. Tim survived the attack because he was also 'attacked' by an anonymous Chinese, knocked to the ground and saved. But then his rescuer flees.

That same night, Tim wanted to drink a cup of tea when the anonymous rescuer broke his cup because his tea, as it turned out later, was poisoned. This time the anonymous leaves at least one message so that Tim and him meet the next night.

However, he is also poisoned with Radjaidah and attacks Tim. Tim escapes again and decides to leave China by ship . At sea, however, there is a kidnapping , so that Tim wakes up in China the next day. He meets the savior who has gone mad again, but this time also in the company of his father Wang. He explains to Tim that Mitsuhirato is a Japanese spy and that they are smuggling opium into the country. The Sons of the Dragon resistance group , of which he is a member, is fighting against it. Tim and Wang also manage to resolve the meaning of the telegram from the short-wave transmitter together: They have to go to the Blue Lotos opium den in the evening . Tim decides to help Wang.

Japanese soldiers occupy Mukden (today Shenyang)

In the evening, Tim follows Mitsuhirato and an accomplice from the Blue Lotus as they blow up a railroad track . Hergé traced a real event here, namely the Mukden incident , in which Japanese spies (here Mitsuhirato and his accomplice) blow up a railroad track in China, blame Chinese bandits for the incident and try to justify an invasion of the Japanese army in China to "protect" the Chinese people.

Tim is caught watching the incident. Mitsuhirato supposedly injects Radjaidah into him and lets him go. As Tim later learns, one of the dragon's sons had replaced the poison with harmless water. When Mitsuhirato realizes the mistake, he puts a 5000 yen bounty on Tim and charges him with the authorities of being a Chinese spy. A Chinese man helps Tim escape town and to Wang. Gibbons discovers him on the way and betrays him to the Japanese military. However, because Tim cannot find Tim, he accuses Gibbons of tying him up with a bear and puts him in jail in turn.

To find an antidote for Wang's son, Tim has to go back to Shanghai. To get into the city, he disguises himself as a Japanese general on inspection and thus leads the Japanese soldiers by the nose. Tim enters the internationally controlled area of ​​Shanghai to visit a professor who might know an antidote to Radjaidah. However, this one was kidnapped. The blackmailers are demanding $ 50,000 for his release, deposited in the ancient temple of Hukou . On the way, however, Tim is arrested by the authorities and handed over to the Japanese because the police chief of the international zone owes the Japanese a "favor". The Japanese condemn Tim to death for alleged espionage and other crimes.

Wang manages to get Tim out of jail just in time. With a trick he manages to get past the guards - this time out of town again - and thus makes the Japanese military a mockery of the people.

Tim is now on his way to Hukou. On the way there, Tim saves a young orphan named Tschang from the lake. He wonders, however, that he was saved by Tim because his grandparents were murdered during the Boxer Rebellion and he therefore thinks that all Europeans are angry. Tim explains to him that this is not true and that the peoples simply don't know each other enough. In Europe, for example, the belief is widespread that all Chinese women have their feet tied up for reasons of beauty and that the rivers overflow with babies who are thrown into the water after birth. Tschang is now traveling to Hukou with Tim. When Mitsuhirato learns of Tim's trip, he bribes the local police to issue an arrest warrant for Tim. Therefore, when Tim arrives there, his friends, the detectives Schulze and Schultze, arrest him. Tschang manages to save him by exchanging the Schultzes' exemption, which is written in Chinese. The two then travel back to Shanghai, with Tim surviving an assassination attempt by Yamato, one of Mitsuhirato's henchmen.

Back in Shanghai, Tim Mitsuhirato observes. He becomes active himself and kidnaps the sons of the dragon . Tim and Tschang only find a message that says Blue Lotos . Tim is on his way there.

In the Blue Lotus , however, there are Mitsuhirato and Yamato trying to grab Tim. But it is in a vase and is not discovered.

In order to save Wang and his family, Tim follows the criminals into the house in a barrel with newly delivered drugs . However, he is discovered by Mitsuhirato, because he knew which bin Tim would be hiding in. Now he too, along with Wang and his wife, are to be beheaded by their son. At the last moment, Tschang and other members of the resistance group jump out of the remaining tons, which are supposedly filled with drugs, and overwhelm Mitsuhirato and his accomplices. Tim's eternal adversary Rastapopoulos was also part of the party. The diplomatic crisis triggered by the railway attack ends with the withdrawal of the Japanese. Mitsuhirato shortly afterwards commits hara-kiri .

Before Tim leaves, he drinks with Wang, Tschang and the other members of the Sons of the Dragon for their good. In addition, with the help of the freed scientist, it is possible to prepare an antidote for Wang's son. Tschang is allowed to stay with Wang.

New narrative methodology

In the volumes before The Blue Lotos , Hergé based his stories mainly on popular prejudices and on what his mentor, Abbot Norbert Wallez , had told him about socialism , the Soviet Union , the Belgian colonies in Africa or the United States . The latter, for example, has been portrayed as a nation of gangsters and cowboys and Indians such as can be found in Hollywood films (although Hergé sympathized with the Indians for the way they were driven from their land).

Tintin appeared as a comic in Le Petit Vingtième . At the end of Pharaoh's Cigars , Hergé announced that his next story would be set in China. Father Gosset, chaplain of the Chinese students at the University of Leuven , wrote a letter to Hergé urging him to be sensitive about what he was going to write about China, as it could offend his Chinese students. Hergé understood the danger and in the spring of 1934 Gosset introduced him to Zhang Chongren (called "Chang Chong-chen" by Hergé), a young student at the Brussels Art Academy . The two young artists quickly became close friends, and Zhang introduced Hergé to Chinese culture and the techniques of Chinese art.

As a result of these experiences, Hergé paid meticulous attention to the depiction of the places Tintin and Struppi visit in The Blue Lotus and in the adventures that followed. He also researched the topics presented. This newfound commitment to accuracy has become Hergé's trademark.

As a token of appreciation, he added the fictional character "Tschang" ("Tchang" in French), a Chinese boy who befriends Tim. Hergé lets Tim explain that Chang's fear of the “white devils” is based on prejudice and Chinese racism. Tim then recites a few Western stereotypes of the Chinese that Tschang identifies as completely unfounded. Through Zhang's advice, clothes and movements became more precise, Mandarin was used in street names and signposts, and vases and furniture were lined with Chinese decorations.

Fictionalization of real events

Several historical events are loosely depicted in The Blue Lotus . Mitsuhirato and his accomplices blow up the railway line between Shanghai and Nanking. As a result, Japanese soldiers invade China and occupy Shanghai, ostensibly to restore order. This corresponds to the actual Mukden incident of September 18, 1931, which happened about 600 miles further north. The Manchuria was occupied by the Japanese in September 1931 and Shanghai itself was attacked early 1932, but completely conquered until November 1937th After Mitsuhirato's defeat, the League of Nations opens an investigation into the Mukden incident. As a result, Japan left the League of Nations on March 27, 1933.

Political rumors

As a further result of his friendship with Zhang, Hergé became increasingly aware of the problems of colonialism , particularly the attempts of the Japanese Empire to increase its influence in China. Tim saves a Chinese man from a racist thug named Gibbons, who can rely on the help of Dawson, the corrupt police chief of the internationally controlled part of Shanghai, for his revenge. The Japanese and some European characters are portrayed in a negative light. The Japanese, including Mitsuhirato and the Japanese soldiers, are shown with shiny teeth, while the Chinese are shown with narrow lips. This account has provoked sharp criticism from various quarters, for example Japanese diplomats brought a corresponding protest to the Belgian Foreign Ministry. The Republic of China was so pleased with the presentation that its then leader Chiang Kai-shek invited Hergé to China. However, due to fundamental reservations about the “ideology of Tim”, which was widespread in Hergé's works, publication was initially banned by the People's Republic of China . It wasn't until 1984 that The Blue Lotus was published in China, with some changes to controversial passages.

Allusions to Herge's attitude can also be found as subtle ideograms such as “Down with imperialism” on a sign while Gibbons beats up a poor rickshaw driver. Japanese imperialism as well as the international branches are also criticized.

Release history

The adventure was originally published under the name Tintin en Extrême-Orient (literally: "Tim in the Far East").

The original version of The Blue Lotus was published in 1934 in Le Petit Vingtième in black and white. It was later redrawn and colored and released as an album in 1946.

Many scenes that appeared in the original version were omitted in 1946. These included:

  • After an arrow was shot in the neck of the Chinese man in the Maharadja Palace, one recognizes the fakir from The Pharaoh's Cigars , who disappears into the jungle. Tim explains to the Maharadja that he does not want to travel to China while the fakir is free. They later received a telegram that the fakir had been arrested again.
  • When Tintin ends up in prison at the beginning, allegedly because they attacked a police officer, Dawson sends three strong soldiers into the cell to beat Tim up. In the original there are three British soldiers, from England, Ireland and Scotland. In fact, these three end up in the hospital and an officer has to pay a fine for their “offense against the ideals”. In the 1946 edition, the white soldiers were replaced by Indian police officers.
  • In the cinema, Tim sees a message about how Sir Malcolm Campbell breaks the land speed record with his "Bluebird". This message is omitted in the later version.
  • While searching in the basement of the Blue Lotus, Tim opens a door and he and Tschang stand right in front of another gangster. Tim tells Tschang to follow suit, raise his arms and put the gun down. When the gangster bends down to pick up the pistols, Tim slams the door in his face. Tschang ties him up with a rope.

Worth mentioning

According to a survey carried out among 17,000 French people in 1999, the newspaper Le Monde produced “ The 100 books of the century ”. "The Blue Lotus" takes 18th place here.

For Tintin's 70th birthday, an exhibition was organized by the Hergé Foundation in Hamburg. The highlight were all the original ink drawings of the Blue Lotus in one room.

An original drawing of the title page that was never published - it shows Tim hiding in a Chinese vase next to a large red dragon - achieved a record value of 3.2 million euros at an auction in Paris in 2021.

Reuse the figures

There is a reunion with Tschang in the album Tim in Tibet , in which Tim is looking for his missing friend in the Himalayas . Mr. Gibbons has a new appearance in the unfinished album Tim and the Alpha Art , where he and the main characters are guests in the villa of the magician Endaddin Akass. Dawson , chief of police at the international branch in Shanghai, reappears in coal on board as a criminal arms dealer.

Rastapopoulos also appears in coal on board , and his film from Pharaoh's cigars "So hates Arabia" will also be shown in the cinema.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (see Farr, 2006, p. 59)
  2. ↑ Deutsche Welle : Original drawing by Hergé achieves record price on January 14, 2021, accessed on January 14, 2021