Week 2 - The Blue Lotus: Tintin's Popularity

"Tintin, an imaginery hero in a real world... there is something about Tintin that defies time, language and culture" (Farr, 2001, p. 8).

The adventures of Tintin encapsulates the combined worlds of fantasy and reality, feeding the imaginations of the young and old, thus generating a universal and timeless effect that has, for the most part, contributed to the comics’ long-lasting popularity.

Hergé’s precision of real-life settings and historic events in Tintin’s adventures carves out a window of opportunity for children to learn about the outside world from the comfort of their home; while adults seek and question the different civilisations from a political standpoint (Farr, 2001).

As a child, I watched Tintin every other Saturday morning and I remember being fascinated by the places Tintin and Snowy visited. Looking back, what I admired about Tintin was how well he got along with people, even in high-risk situations where he still maintained his cool, convincing self. Much of this can be attributed to the concept of suspending disbelief, the desire to be more than human: the idealistic-type qualities pertaining to Tintin’s character, particularly for someone who is of a pre-adolescent age, travelling across the world and fighting crime; and the unrealistic amateurish detective/bounter hunter-style approach incorporated into a supposedly children's comic with elements of high-scale crimes (drug smuggling, kidnapping and what not). "Tintinesque" might be applicable here since these given impressions have become representative of the comic, that can be found in no other. In that case, young readers will share some of that fascination and excitement that Hergé delivers.

For older audiences,  Hergé was worldly-inclined, derived from his scouting background and extensive news-related research; although it seems archives of research he collated have only enforced many of the political prejudice/propaganda that were prevalent at the time of publication. Hergé's real-life friendship with Chang Chong-Chen may have brought upon a revelation in himself on the cultural yet politically-motivated assumptions. From what I can see, The Blue Lotus reveals a vagueness in his intentions (encouraging the prohibition of Japanese products through Chinese signage and slogans, while at the same time, Chang's encounter with Tintin sparks an interesting exchange on their beliefs of Europeans and the Chinese, after Tintin saves Chang from drowning [Herge, 1984, p. 43]). Seemingly, the ambiguity of his true motives may suggest the deep impact of his colonial/eurocentric perceptions and that his cross-cultural experience came much later in his working life, to which time might have been slow in altering his attitudes completely.

All in all, these factors have had a major role in Tintin's long-lasting popularity - an ageless demographic has come to see children get a first glimpse of the outside world through Tintin's adventures as introduced by the adults in their life, in which they have read as children themselves; these adventures are revisited by adults much more critically, detecting misleading, farcical elements in the narrative. Nevertheless, they continued to be passed down to the next generation, as soon as they reach adulthood (Farr, 2001).

I hope to have tried my best to answer for Tintin's legacy, as thoughtfully and succinctly as I could.
What do you guys think? What else can be accounted for Tintin's long-running success? To agree or disagree, don't hesitate to leave a comment.


Reference(s):

Farr, M. (2001). Tintin: The Complete Companion. London: John Murray. 

Hergé (1984). The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. London: Methuen.