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frequent due to the numerous political conflicts, often used his aptitude for modern comics
to make propaganda.
1. First Apparition
2. Immediate Success
B. George Remi
1. Modern Comics
2. Tintin’s World
II. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and the Propagandas of the Western
A. Anticommunist’s Sentiment
1. USSR’s creation
2. Communism in Practice
A. Colonial Context
1. Zhang Chongren
B. Japanese Colonists
1. Japanese’s Caricatures
C. Western Colonists
1. Declaration of Amity
A. Techniques of Propaganda
a) Sino-Japanese Conflict
b) Public’s Admiration
B. Tintin forever
Nguyen 6
Tintin, an imaginary character emerging from a graphic novel, appeared for the first time
on January 10, 1929, in the Le Petit Vingtième, Brussels newspapers—for which his creator,
Hergé worked. The Belgian public enthusiastically adopted this young reporter after reading
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Cendrowicz). Later, published in 23 volumes and translated in
more than 50 languages during the period of 1929 to 1976, Tintin’s adventures have known an
unexpected success. 200 million units have been sold worldwide (Charbit).
Tintin’s success arises from the ability of his creator, George Remi, to master skills for
the writing of modern comics. Hergé, penname of George Remi, included in his creations
intrigues, intellectual humor, creativity, specificity and description. By making Tintin fight
against criminals throughout the world and especially by having him travel to the moon almost
ten years before Neil Armstrong, Hergé created a pioneer and hero and increased Tintin’s
popularity. Similarly to Jules Verne, who wrote all of his books from behind a desk and whose
adventures were purely vicarious, Hergé succeeded with his graphic novels by looking through
books and magazines to create a world where Tintin could have his adventures (Cendrowicz).
Thanks to Hergé's research, Tintin gained a multitude of friends such as his dog Snowy, his
However, Hergé (1907-1983), who lived in a period during which changes in political
views were frequent due to the numerous political conflicts, often used his aptitude for modern
comics to make propaganda. Looking carefully throughout Hergé’s works, the public can point
out that particular political views, such as the Cold War as well as racial biases, strongly
Nguyen 7
influenced his manner of writing. With this in mind, three of his books—Tintin in the Land of
the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo, and The Blue Lotus—are particularly interesting to analyze as
propaganda. Firstly, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets needs to be examined because it was the
propaganda of the Western bloc against the Eastern bloc. Moreover, since it is George Remi’s
first book, it represents a good mark for comparing his evolution in propaganda. Secondly,
Tintin in the Congo requires readers’ attention because Hergé had changed the content of this
book some years after its publication. In fact, this book contains stereotypes concerning
Congolese people and some anti-racism associations accused him of discrimination. Finally, The
Blue Lotus demands a particular consideration because Hergé took the defense of the colonized
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and the Propagandas of the Western
The idea to send Tintin to the Union Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was from the
Abbot Norbert Wallez, Hergé’s newspaper director; Tintin’s father could not decide where to
have his hero travel in his first adventure ("A very European Hero"). However, between January
10, 1929 and 1930, when he worked on Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the sentiment of anti-
communism predominated in Western Europe ("Tintin: 80 ans et pas une ride!"). Thus, Hergé
who strongly believed in this ideology referred to Moscou Sans Voiles by Joseph Douillet—ex-
consul of Belgium in the USSR—as principal resource for the writing of his first publication
(Decaux 29). Joseph Douillet’s book denounced practice of the communist system; the
Bolshevists—with Lenine as leader—ended the reign of the bourgeois class in Russia, but also
In this atmosphere, Tintin went to the land of the Soviets not only to report what really
happened in USSR behind the iron curtain, but also to make propagandas from the Western
Europe against propaganda those from the Eastern Europe (Lavanchy 8). For these reasons,
Hergé illustrated the communist USSR as a country in which policemen and soldiers in uniform
were omnipresent, and they frequently and severely controlled foreigners (Figure1). Hergé also
did not hesitate to represent them as morally corrupted by their government; they used violence
to punish or kill people who did not support their ideology (Figure 2 & 3). Hergé often portrayed
as unsympathic cops and soldiers who never smiled unless they did as that their superiors
ordered them.
Nguyen 9
The representative of the law considers the anti-communist as a dog while the
good communist receives his ratio of daily bread.
According to Hergé, it was clear that in such a repressive and corruptive society, the
liberty of expression did not exist and the right to vote is just a masquerade (Figure 4). People
have the right to vote, but only for the system already in place. A lie as many others that the
dictatorial government put in place to bluff the rest of the world. For instance, the totalitarian
administration only showed factories as working, but not how their representatives mistreated
unfortunate peasants in order to steal their productions for export (Figure 5 & 6).
An ultra-police state with famine, poverty, and terror everywhere, was how Hergé
described the new Russia. He incredibly succeeded to pass the message to warn readers about the
dangers of communism (Lavanchy 8). As a reminder, Belgian public welcomed Tintin in the
Land of the Soviets with enthusiasm. Indeed, in the context of the Cold War, similarly to other
Belgians, he did not accept anything from Russians, even their good actions. Bolshevists are
inevitably liars and profiteers, because they are communists; in this case, Tintin’s creator
At the end of the 19th century, the idea that white people were superior to others spread
out all over the European continent (Paquier 14). Having this definition deeply inked in their
heads, white men intended to stretch their civilization as far as possible—they especially thought
that Africans had no education. Hence, European people during this period showed little
appreciation to other civilizations. George Remi, set his figure, Tintin, in Congo with the same
frame of mind—black men are inferior beings. Indeed, in his comic books Tintin in the Congo,
he represented Congolese people as lazy and naïve people. The most eventful moment in that is
when Tintin’s car derails a train made in Congo. On this drawing board, after some quick
excuses, Tintin, with his hands on his hips, orders the passengers to put the train back on the
tracks by making them feel guilty. He shows them how disgraceful they are to let Snowy, his pet
After his first book, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Hergé, desired his hero to go to
America. Nevertheless, under the influence of Abbot Norbert Wallez, who advocated religious
missions in Belgian colonies, he instead sent Tintin to Congo (Lavanchy 11). The young George
Remi, who ignored everything that happened in this Belgian colony, hastened to begin writing
the story without taking any step back because of time constraint—Le Petit Vingtième was a
Hergé, who lived in Brussels—capital of Belgium, started to gather information from the
Musée du Congo, newly called the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, in which he discovered
the statue of the terrifying Leopard-man, to which he gave life in his fiction ("Tintin à l’Heure de
la Colonisation"). He thereby created the myth of the wild African (Figure 8). As for Tintin, he
inherited the panoply of the perfect Belgian colonist, from the cap to the pants as well as the
rifle. The author used the book Notre Colonie by A. Michiels and N. Laude as reference ("Tintin
à l’Heure de la Colonisation"). This book has as its thesis, the supremacy of white men over
black men. It asserts that white men have to take charge and assure to the local habitants a good
government. For example, Tintin tried to bring order to a Congolese village where tribal chefs
quarreled (Figure 9). Even French scholar manuals written by missionaries for Congolese
children contained absurdities, such as, “black people are victims of human decadences,”
whereas, “white people represent the superior race1” (Couvreur). In the same register, the
black kid stops very soon2” (Couvreur). From these books, Hergé extracted stereotypical
caricatures of Congolese people; he drew them with huge mouth that make up one third of their
1
(Couvreur, Unpublished translation by Nguyen U. Hoang)
2
("Tintin à l’Heure de la Colonisation", Unpublished translation by Nguyen U. Hoang )
Nguyen 14
face, and wearing crazy clothes—they utilize former old white men clothes, but they do not
Figure 10 (George)
On this picture, a black man carries a cravat over his nude torso and has a false
collar without wearing a chemise whereas a black woman wears a fur coat on a
sunny day with a hat made with feathers.
Nguyen 15
physically. Hergé especially focused on the correlation—black man needs help of the white man
because of the superiority of the white man to spread concept superiority of the White to the
world. The wild and uneducated Congolese accept the invasion of the Belgian with happiness
because the latter civilize the former. For example, Snowy educated by Tintin has better
speaking language than the Congolese who talk with no conjugated verbs. In Hergé’s view,
black people have to be thankful that white people are here to support them (Wilhelm 6).
Nguyen 16
In 1934, Hergé met the young Chinese student, Zhang Chongren, who was an apprentice
sculptor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, with the view to collect information for
Tintin’s next adventure, in the Far East. Father Gosset, professor at the University of Leuven, is
the person who organized their meeting to prevent Hergé from having cultural and racial
misconception as he did in Tintin in the Congo (Hill-Gibbins 12). The two artists became friends
and the Orient’s culture quickly fascinated Hergé. This friendship not only helped him to avoid
certain Chinese stereotypes, but also gave him a strong sympathy toward the Chinese population.
Having affection for those people, he started writing of The Blue Lotus which condemns the
occupation of China by Japanese and Western colonists during the 1930s (Laser-Robinson 19).
Hergé took the defense of Chinese people by first making caricature of the Japanese in
his fifth oeuvre. In contrast to the young Chang (Figure 11), his Chinese friend whom he
transposed in the comic and who inherited Western traits, he sketched Mr. Mitsuhirato—the
principal bad character of the story—like a mole. Indeed, Chang has barely squinted eyes, small
nose, brown hair, and happy face whereas the mean colonist has a small moustache over his
upper lip, large mouth, big tooth, two thin line instead of eyes, a pig nose, and black hair in pike.
Moreover, George Rémi repeatedly depicted the Asian settlers with a petty-minded smiles or
choleric to emphasize the idea that the Japanese people are naturally bad. On the other hand, he
loved to represent the Chinese characters as wise, nice, or courageous (Figure 12 & 13).
The employ of the good versus the evil concept is another way for Hergé to convince the readers
to accept his beliefs. In addition to make the Japanese individuals ugly and violent, he also
accused them to be at the origin of the dealing of opium in China. In fact, Mr. Mitsuhirato who is
the order to control the drug traffic. In opposition to these dishonest and villain beings, Mr.
Wang, Chang, Tintin, and Snowy tried by any means to stop these deals.
Nguyen 18
Hergé will not spare the Westerners’ excess of zeal towards the unfortunate Chinese
citizen, who works hard to ameliorate his situation. From the first page of The Blue Lotus, Hergé
already informed the public his position concerning the colonization in China. For instance, just
after the rickshaw accident, Tintin directly interposed by breaking the cane of Gibbon, a rich
European colonizer, and by reminding him that his behavior is not fit for a gentleman (Figure
14). Even though, he did not denigrate the European physically, he pointed out their vulgarity
and omission of basis values—the respect of the other. Hergé equally tried to convey through
Gibbon, the hypocritical attitude of the white men who do the opposite of what they say or think
(Figure 15).
Hergé’s pro-Chinese sentiment appeared also in the friendship between Tintin, the
Belgian and Chang, the Chinese. The scene where Hergé emphasized this amity is when Tintin
succeeded to save Chang from drowning. However, the latter curiously asked the reporter after
recovering his senses, why he saved him. In fact, as the young Chinese boy explained, white
devils killed his grandparents during the Boxer Rebellion—opposing China to Western countries.
Tintin directly reassured him by clarifying that not all white men are evil (Figure 16).
Hergé made his propaganda pro-Chinese by the denigration of the Japanese with
caricatures, by the accusation of the Asian and Western colonists which are at the origin of the
social malaise in China, by giving positive images of the Chinese, and by making a Tintin very
close to the Chinese population. Those methods permitted to Hergé to fully succeed to expend
his ideology; aficionados of comic book consider The Blue Lotus as the most realist oeuvre of
Hergé. “Readers of Le Monde newspapers rank this book at the 18 th position among books that
always significantly succeeded to propagate his ideas. In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, he
depicted Russia as an underdeveloped country, a state in which the frightening government let
their citizens live in cities in ruin. Scarcity of food, misery, and violence from law enforcement
were in all places. Because of their political choice, communist Bolshevists are by default bad;
Hergé demonized everything that derives from the Soviet administration. In Tintin in the Congo,
Hergé used the caricature for primary weapon. He stressed on Congolese people’s traits of
visages and gave them the behavior of a big child. Clearly, these ugly and naïve men needed the
adult and responsible white people as guides to show them how to solve their problems. To
extend his perception, Hergé particularly emphasized the airy-fairy concept that states black men
see the arrival of white people on their lands as a benediction of God. Thus, Westerners did
nothing incorrect when invading black people’s lands. In The Blue Lotus, George Remi started
his propaganda by comparing of the Japanese to the Chinese. Being pro-China, he praised
Chinese people—they are sage, hard worker and always ready to help other, and denigrated
Japanese individuals—they are animal like and responsible for the drug trade in China. Next, he
played with the concept of god and evil when he explained the reason why some westerners are
brutal. Finally, the representation of Tintin in traditional Chinese clothes had a considerable
importance in the conquest of the Far East; Tintin was much closer to Chinese people than he
was with the Congolese. Those processes allowed Hergé to completely achieve his ideologies in
a time when political opinions were instable because of the multiple political quarrels.
Nguyen 21
As seen on the analyses of the three books, Hergé’s propaganda was sometimes so
virulent that some anti-racism associations accused him of discrimination. For example,
English’s editor never published Tintin in the Congo that contains stereotypes concerning
Congolese people. “This book contains imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice, where
savage natives look like monkey and talk like imbeciles” (Malvern). Moreover, his arrestation by
the Belgian government for being a collaborator because he worked as cartoonist for newspapers
that Nazis censored during World War II made him feel guilty (Cendrowicz). Hergé’s books
were is products of its time. “It correctly represents attitudes that were prevalent in 1931”
(Knight). These allegations—which pushed him to depression—pursued him to the end of his
life, even though he inserted anti-Nazi action in his works in the 1930s. Later, Tintin also started
Hergé later admitted that prejudices toward the Soviet and the Congolese were puerile,
This was in 1930, I only knew of this country thanks to what people narrated
during that period: ‘Africans are big children.’3
How lucky they are that we are here!’ and so on. I portrayed these Africans
according to these criteria, in this purely paternalistic spirit of the time in
Belgium ("Tintin à l’Heure de la Colonisation")…
It’s true that Soviets and Congo were youthful sins. I’m not rejecting them.
However, if I were to do it again, they would be different (Laurent).
In this context of colonization, it was obvious that Tintin had to inherit some bad influences from
his creator. Since Europeans thought that everything that comes from outside their continent has
no importance, Hergé’s offensive attitudes come from the environment in which he lived.
Therefore, George Remi, who was only 22 years old when Tintin travelled to Congo, eventually,
thought, without taking a step back, that black people neither had outside beauty nor inside
3
(George Remi, Unpublished translation by Nguyen U. Hoang)
Nguyen 22
mistake which lead him apologize to African people. Thus, Hergé removed and corrected some
clichés that referred Belgian colony in the 1946 version of Tintin in the Congo. In the classroom
scene, Tintin replaced his Geography lesson, in which Congolese children learned about their
Figure 17 (George)
In the version of 1934, the colonial sentiment was very strong; Tintin tried to
convey to the uneducated Congolese students that their country is a part of
Belgium. In the version of 1946, Herge gives a more neutral image to Tintin,
who becomes a Mathematics teacher.
Changes, even minimum—Tintin just teaches simple calculs such as two plus two equal four 4—
shows that Hergé has somewhat his opinion about black men.
Hergé also affirmed that his prejudices toward the Soviets arose from books dealing with
the bloody October Revolution and the massacre of the House of Romanov—last imperial
dynasty of Russia—that he received and read when he was only 15. Thus, Tintin in the Land of
the Soviets was a mélange of personal ideology and reflection of his time.
« For Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, it certainly was a mélange of both. I
worked at that time for a catholic newspaper. Thus, of the extreme-right and
4
(Referring to the figure 17 in color, Tintin: We are going to start if you want by some addition… Does someone
know how much is two plus two?... Nobody?... Come on… Two plus two is equal to…)
Nguyen 23
their public enemy number one was evidently the Bolshevist 5» ("Hergé à Propos
de Tintin, ses Idées Politiques").
He considered the script of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets as expression of all horrors that he
could read in books or seen in movies which type casted Soviets people as cruel and bloodroot
beings. Thereafter, he recognized that Soviets too were victims of their tyrannical government.
To prove that the anti-Soviet sentiment was very present in Belgium, he cited as example, in his
own defense, an article came out in Le Petit Vingtième, which particularly impacted him and
titled “What did this Soviet oil tanker in the Red Sea do?6” ("Hergé à Propos de Tintin, ses Idées
Politiques"). In this article, a journalist emitted doubts around the reason why a Russian oil
tanker was in the Red Sea, close to the sinking of the trans-Atlantic ship, the George-Philipar,
while latter came there to help victims of the burning boat. His confidences in his beliefs made
Hergé’s compassion for the Chinese in The Blue Lotus based on the good relation with
Zhang Chongren was sincere. His points of view concerning the Chinese population changed
from this meeting of minds. Thus, the creator of Tintin feels the need to share his passion to the
world and to encourage Westerners to avoid prejudices about China. However, at the beginning
of 1930, political tensions between China and Japan made headlines of newspapers every day.
Because of the emergency to support or his affection’s élan for Chinese population, the
cartoonist did somewhat relapsed in the trap of race discrimination when he caricatured the
Japanese (Laser-Robinson 19). Nevertheless, critics and public did not punish him for this
mistake. In fact, they admired him for his anti-colonial behavior and his desire to try to avoid
stereotype. “The same stupid European that Hergé is reffering to in the scene with Chang may be
Through Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo, and The Blue Lotus,
George Remi shows that he really is a master of propaganda as well as one of the fathers of
intrigues, intellectual humor, and actions. Micheal Farr, author of Tintin: The complete
Companion suggests that Tintin defies time, language and culture because comedy and even
farce will attract children, whereas political satire and parody, puns and prescience will attract
adult. Twenty-five years after Hergé’s demise, Tintin remains very popular and he now prepares
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Nguyen 26
Hill-Gibbins, Joe. "Hergé’s Adventure of Tintin." Young Vic 12 Jul 2007: 56.
Knight, India. "Let Tintin the racist speak." The Sunday Times 15 July, 2007 1. 13 Feb 2009
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Laser-Robinson, Alexander S. "An Analysis of Hergé's Portrayal of Various Racial Group in The
<http://www.forbes.com/2007/07/23/tintin-congo-herge-cx_ll_0713autofacescan01_print.html>.
Malvern, Jack. "Tintin book is crude, racist and must be banned, says watchdog." The Times 12
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Paquier, Nadège, and Diane Tiedemann. "La Colonisation du Congo." Gymnase Auguste Piccard
Video Documents
"Hergé à propos de Tintin, ses idées politiques." ORTF 08 Oct 1973: 15'49''.
Additional Works
Hugo Frey, "Contagious Colonial Diseases in Hergé's The adventures of Tintin." Modern
Peeters, Benoît . Tintin and the world of Hergé : an illustrated history. 1st U.S. ed..
McCarthy, Tom. Tintin and the Secret of Literature. 1st Counterpoint ed.. Berkeley, CA: Group
West, 2008.
Movek Boland
Wellman Clark