Customer Reviews

Blue Lotus (The Adventures of Tintin)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Those delightful boobies, Thomson and Thompson, reappear in this sequel to 'Cigars Of The Pharoah', at one point ostentatiously disguising themselves in 'Mikado'-like finery to blend in with the Chinese locals, as they attempt to surreptitiously capture Tintin, only gathering an amused crowd in their wake.

For many Tintinophiles, 'The Blue Lotus' is the most precious of all Herge's masterpieces; certainly, in the event of a fire, after my dogs, and maybe my wife, my long-battered copy would be the first thing I would rescue. From its famous front cover - a giant, twisting black Chinese dragon on a rich red background, facing Tintin and Snowy as they hide in blue vase patterned with a bird and flowers, the images lit by a pale green lantern - every frame is a detailed artwork in itself. Set largely in Japan and European-occupied Shanghai in the early 1930s, every frame painstakingly evokes the Oriental setting: every wall-covering, item of clothing, ornament, building, street, poster, vehicle. Some of the landscapes and silhouettes are etched with the complex simplicity of a wood-cut by Hokusai, Hiroshige or Taige. The eye-dazzling colour is complemented by a much higher proportion of night scenes than previous Tintins. The deep, sombre colours give the story a melancholy (as do the peeling walls found everywhere behind the prettily picturesque Orientalist scenes). This sadness is matched by the plot's events, not just the violent expansionist plans of Japanese fascists or the culpability of European colonialists, but a world where brave sons turn mad, and orphans nearly drown by sheer chance. Herge's storytelling has also matured significantly since his early efforts: his pacing and variations of tone, his crosscutting and fragmenting of narrative, his sustaining mystery - all come together with superb mastery.

And for the first time, because the fictional world created is so believable and historically rooted, Tintin takes on the contours of a genuine hero, much more than a mad marionette endlessly dodging melodramatic villains. His genuine nobility, loyalty and courage, his touching friendship with the orphan Chang, all bespeak fading values in a world crashing towards totalitarianism. A beautiful, urgent book.

This is probably the most exciting and the most interesting of all the 25 Tintin adventures. Considering it was written early in Herge's career (c. 1930s), the level of proficiency and artwork is extraordinary. In this adventure, really the continuation of "Cigars of the Pharaoh" but able to stand on its own, Tintin travels to China to root out an international drug-smuggling gang. During his stay in China, Tintin gets enmeshed in the politics of the time, when the Japanese were secretly creating pretexts for extending their occupation of China. At a time when the European powers were practicing appeasement towards Japan, this adventure is a daring stance in solidarity with the underdog - here being the Chinese. Much of the day-to-day events of the time are interwoven seamlessly with the action of this adventure comic. Neither is the opium trade (the centerpiece of this story) that the colonial powers pushed on China far removed from reality.

What is perhaps the most amazing thing about this creation is that Herge never traveled to China, not before nor after this story (though he did go to Hong Kong much later in his life). For information about China, he relied on magazine photos and articles, and on the information provided by a friend and roommate Chang Chong Ching, who played the role model for the Chang Tintin befriends in the story (and whom we encounter later in Tintin in Tibet). Chang is the one who wrote the myriad excellent specimens of Chinese calligraphy ornamenting the book. All the Chinese signs in the adventure are meaningful inscriptions, from simple restaurant signs "Foods" and advertisements for international companies "Siemens" to anti-imperialist and anti-Japanese slogans grafittied on the walls. These signs paint a realistic portrait of the Chinese environment at the time. All my Chinese friends who have read this adventure swear that the depictions of China are realistic and cannot believe that Herge never visited that country!

This comic story has all the components for a great piece of art/literature. The artwork is masterful, the settings and scenery realistic, the plot and action entertaining and suspenseful, and the characters well-developed and possess considerable depth. In addition, while the ending is happy, the story is not free from life's tragic moments that bring tears to the eyes. A definite must-read for all Tintin lovers, as well as for those wishing to learn something about China and its recent history.

The Blue Lotus is a sequel to Cigars of the Pharaoh, in which Tintin struggled with an international gang of smugglers in north Africa and India. In the current volume, the intrigue with the smugglers takes Tintin from India to Shanghai where his life is constantly in danger as the smugglers try to stop him from finding a cure for their secret poison of madness. There is a racial bias in this volume in favor of the Chinese of Shanghai over the British and Japanese who are portrayed as scheming and self-centered. Hergé must have sympathized with these colonized people who were being threatened by rising Japanese aggression.

Tintin's friendly adversaries, the twin Thompson brothers, detectives, make their appearance in this volume and there is a very funny scene where they try to disguise themselves as Chinese in pre-reform costumes and become the center of attention.

The heroes of the book are the elderly Wang and young Chang, two remarkably clever and resourceful allies.

This series is great at portraying the world between the two great wars in a way that is simple yet respectful. The adventures are well crafted and the color illustrations are sumptuous in detail. Shanghai really comes to life in this book with its opium dens, busy streets, and tea shops.

Herge, The Blue Lotus (Methuen, 1936)

Herge here continues the story arc that started in The Cigars of the Pharaoh, with Tintin and Snowy headed off to find the antidote for the madness-inducing poison that played such a prominent role in their last adventure and, of course, finding themselves in even more danger than they were the last time. This is still early work for Herge, and newbies to the series might want to start with one of the later volumes (anything published during World War II will likely make you a fan for life) and come back to this. And, of course, you don't want to read this one without having read The Cigars of the Pharaoh first, or a number of references will make less sense than they otherwise would. ***

Blue Lotus is certainly one of Herge's best, along with Cigars, Broken Ear, Tintin in Tibet, Red Rackams Treasure. What I find to be true in his best books is the belief that never dies which is that there is some point of contact possible between the relationships you pursue in your lifetime and the external world or the events and history of earth herself. This illusory point of contact is kept alive, we keep hoping for it, because Tintin is undefeatable since he never makes the mistake of loving.

Written in 1936 , The Blue Lotus is the sequel to the colourful Cigars of the Pharaoh. In the Cigars of the Pharaoh , Tintin has almost succeeded in smashing an international gang of drug traffickers , managing to capture all of them except the leader who mysteriously crashes over a ravine.
His further investigations lead him to China , then under threat from Japanese agression.
Tintin comes up against a madman infected with a dart that sends the recipient insane , enraged British colonists out for revenge after having been humiliated by Tintin and the Japanese army , with the chief villain of the piece being Japanese businessman Mitsuhirato.
This album drew protest form the Japanese government of the time , and was praised by Chiang Kai Shek , President of the Republic of China.
However, it was banned by China's Communist regime until 1984 , due to some of their own insane Maoist reasoning-and even then was still chopped up and heavily edited.
Other albums having been banned by the Communist dictatorship in China where Tintin in tibet (for recognizing tibetan culture) , Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (for exposing Communism)and Tintin in the Congo ('Colonialist').

This Tintin book is the best.It contians action, suspence,and some very sneaky villians.This story starts were Cigars of the Pharoh ended.A must read.

This book, which was created in 1934 and redrawn in 1946, is visually not quite as together as "Cigars of the Pharaoh", which had originally been written a year before but redrawn in 1955. It picks up from the end of "Cigars of the Pharaoh," and Tintin is seen making his way from India to China after getting a message from a mysterious stranger, who only manages to tell him that he is needed in Shanghai before he succumbs to Rajaijah juice, the poison of madness. In Shanghai he meets corrupt Westerners and evil Japanese, Snowy is poisoned, and Tintin is kidnapped by patriarch Wang Chen-yee who enlists him to help fight corruption and foreign invasion. Using the house of a Chinese gentleman and scholar as a base, Tintin seeks to bring terrorists, opium smugglers and anti-government agents to justice. He gives the bad guys a good thrashing, while also witnessing the disgraceful Mukden Incident of 1931, a major military and diplomatic incident between China and Japan that set off Japanese imperial expansion into the rest of Asia. Tintin evades authorities in the international settlement trying to bring guilty parties to justice. He is captured, nearly executed, he saves the life of and befriends a young Chinese called Chang Chong-chen, a character based on Herge's real-life friend Zhang Chongren (Chang later reappeared in Tintin in Tibet and is mentioned in The Castafiore Emerald). There is a great scene where the two men exchange notes on their various cultures' mutual prejudices and the generalisations of each's respective culture towards each other. Of course Thomson and Thompson show up in disguise, where they fool no-one. By the end of the book, they finally make their peace with Tintin, Rastapopoulos is brought to justice, and all ends well.

Belgian artist Herge wrote "The Blue Lotus" as an adventure for his cartoon hero, the young journalist Tintin, in the early 1930's. Of the many Tintin adventures, this one cuts the closest to historical events, capturing a moment in time in which China struggled with civil war, with the intrusive presence of Europeans, and with a Japanese military invasion. The context supports an intense story in which Tintin battles a drug-smuggling conspiracy with the help of a secret Chinese society.

As the story opens, we find Tintin in India, where we left him at the conclusion of "Cigars of the Pharoah." A Chinese visitor, who goes mysteriously insane before he can pass more than a few words of a message, prompts Tintin to travel to China with his faithful dog Snowy. Once in China, Tintin's willingness to stand up for the Chinese makes him both friends and enemies, and puts him on the trail of an opium smuggling ring.

Tintin will be hunted by the Japanese Army, by a corrupt police chief in Shanghai, and by the drug smugglers themselves, whose leader will turn out to be an old enemy. He will be befriended by a young Chinese orphan and by a secret society of Chinese patriots; the story will circle back on itself to a thrilling conclusion.

"The Blue Lotus" features a first-rate storyline. The artwork isn't quite up to Herge's later standards, and Herge deals in some blatant stereotypes of the period, but those minor blemishes need not deter dedicated fans of the series. "The Blue Lotus" is highly recommended to Tintin fans of all ages.

Tintin's fifth album (counting Tintin in the Land of the Soviets as the first), is Herge's first mature work. Lotus is actually a sequel of the Cigars of the Pharaoh, but it can be read without having read the previous book, and is miles apart in terms of maturity. Also, the book transpires in a very definite time and place: Shanghai in the 1930s, as different powers (the japanese, the western countries) struggle for influence. Tintin takes the side of the suffering chinese people, in the form of his friend Tchang (inspired by a real life chinese friend Tintin met in Belgium, also named Tchang). For the first time, he chastises colonialism and the westerner's treatment of non western people (see page 6 and 7 in particular). Paradoxically, the japanese are the really bad guys in this story, personified by the evil Mitsushirato, Tintin's nemesis in this album. I suppose this was the view that many people in the west have of the japanese during that time. This is a complex, multilayered book (hardly the stuff one think is directed at children), and I suppose this was the reason why it was only translated into english in the 1980s, decades after most of the other albums.