No posts published in this language yet
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
TinTin is Racist??
Histoire de Tintin
For those of you who don't know who Tintin is, he is the red-headed star of a popular comic book/tv series, The Adventures of Tintin. It was written by Belgian cartoonist Georges Rémi who went by the pen name Hergé. He created Tintin and dog, Snowy, in 1929 for the newspaper, Le Petit Vingtième. Tintin is a young detective who finds himself in dangerous, but humorous excursions around the world. They were printed in French and in English. They have grown in popularity throughout Europe and in Canada (because French is our second language) and have jumped from print to the cinemas in 2011 with the movie, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. On March 3, 1983, Georges Rémi (Hergé) died.
In between studying for finals in the library, I grabbed a Tintin comic book in French. I thought I would practice my language skills and switch paces from financial management and professional writing. What caught my eye about this one particular Tintin comic was that the adventure took place in China. From the title, The Blue Lotus and the distinct bold red cover with a black Chinese dragon and Tintin hiding in a Chinese-styled pot, I assumed it took place in China. I walked over to my study area and began to read. I have been in French class since grade 9-12, but that doesn't mean that much in my school system, therefore, my French is really not that great despite the three years of study. Nevertheless, I attempted to comprehend the comic.
What you see below are images that I found in the comic that, when translated, said horrible horrible things about Chinese people. I was appalled by how the Chinese were depicted and how they were treated in these comics by White males and even by other Chinese people. I know that this is all fictional and make-belief, but children read these books and it upsets me to think that treating the Chinese and calling them such horrible things might be deemed as okay through Hergé's comics.
Image 1 (top left): Translated means: Imbecile! Dirty Chink*! ...Ah! You dare to shove a White!
Image 2 (top right): Translating the "...qui m'avait bousculé et que je m'appretais à corriger d'importance. M'empecher de battre un Chink, n'est-ce pas une chose intolerable?" means: ...who shoves me and I was about to correct importance. Prevent me to beat a Chink, is it not an intolerable thing?
Image 3 (bottom left): Translated means: You did it on purpose, dirty Chink! ... I am going to teach you, me, to disrespect a white male.
Image 4 (bottom right): Translated means: Dirty Chinese! ... I am going to teach you not to meddle with what does not concern you.
*Chink refers to a racist term for Chinese people.
I even found one part in the comic where a fortune teller is foreshadowing a Chinese man that Tintin must be aware of and he describes him "... avec peau jaune" - with yellow skin.
I found this shockingly disturbing to find and thought that I should share the racism and stereotypes portrayed in this book that are being read by children and adults all over the world. This racism is not okay and I am upset to have found this.
Thank you to Google for helping me translate the parts that I could not understand. Thank you audience for reading!