1、International Comparative LiteratureVol.6 NO.1（2023）：042-073DOI：10.19857/ki.ICL.20236103Copyright Shanghai Normal UniversityThe Blue Lotus and Beyond：A Cross-Cultural Dialogue between Herg and Zhang Chongren*#蓝莲花 的创作及其背后的启示：埃尔热与张充仁的跨文化对话潘致远上海大学PAN ZhiyuanShanghai UAbstract：The Blue Lotus，an episode
2、set in Shanghai of the popular Belgian comic，The Adventures of Tintin，was the result of a collaboration in 1934-35 between Herg，its creator，and Zhang Chongren，a Shanghai-born art student in Brussels.This paper demonstrates that the key legacy of the comic is its message calling for mutual understand
3、ing between different cultures.Despite the considerable amount of literature on The Blue Lotus thanks to the popularity of Tintin，the existing research tends to either mystify or simplify the Herg-Zhang encounter and its attendant influences.Taking a more contextualized approach to engage the immedi
4、ate historical and literary background of the comic，this paper focuses on how a cross-cultural dialogue between Herg and Zhang contributed to the two significant features in The Blue Lotus：raising a voice against injustice in the contemporary Sino-Japanese conflict，and breaking the established frame
5、work of cultural stereotypes.It shows that the collaborators in-depth conversation about different cultures and civilizations functioned not only to provide new knowledge，but also to facilitate an understanding from others perspectives，with a further analysis of the comic itself to verify this impac
6、t.Created on the foundation of a cross-cultural dialogue，this comic in turn became a medium to promote the idea of cultural respect and tolerance to readers of Tintin，which is still relevant today.Keywords：The Blue Lotus；Herg；Zhang Chongren；Sino-Japanese conflict；cultural stereotype；cross-cultural d
7、ialogue*Submitted Date：Feb.28，2023；Accepted Date：Mar.14，2023.#2021 International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Project（YJ20210135，Office of China Postdoc Council&China Postdoctoral Science Foundation）.蓝莲花 的创作及其背后的启示：埃尔热与张充仁的跨文化对话The Blue Lotus and Beyond：A Cross-Cultural Dialogue between Herg and
8、 Zhang Chongren2023,Vol.6,No.1Notes on the Author：PAN Zhiyuan received her B.A.in History from Peking University，and her M.A.and Ph.D.in Modern Chinese History from University of Cambridge.She was a visiting student at the Catholic University of Leuven（Louvain-la-neuve）during her doctoral study.Curr
9、ently she is Post-doc of Modern Chinese History at Shanghai University and was awarded the International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship.She has written mainly on the history of the Catholic Church in modern China.Her other research interests include global history，studies of cross-cultural interac
10、tions，the history of Shanghai and art history.On March 18，1981，at Brussels Zaventem Airport，a crowd of journalists and fans were waiting to witness a reunion between a Belgian and a Chinese.This Belgian was Herg，the creator of The Adventures of Tintin（Les Aventures de Tintin）；this Chinese was Zhang
11、Chongren 张充仁（19071998），a friend of his as well as the co-creator of the The Blue Lotus（Le Lotus bleu），an episode of the comic strip（bande dessine in francophone contexts，1 hereafter comic）set in China.They were both in their seventies.It had been forty-seven years since they had last met（fig.1）.Due
12、to the popularity of Tintin，this event drew great attention from the public.21 Bande dessine(abbreviated as BD),literally“drawn strips,”refers to Franco-Belgian comics.It emerged in the 1920s.Before the Second World War,BDs were almost exclusively published as tabloid size newspapers intended for ch
13、ildren or youth readers.Developed after the War,weekly BD magazines and albums gained popularity.A hardback A4 size album is the main format and remains popular among audience in Belgium and France today.It is regarded as“the ninth art”(le neuvime art)in francophone culture.The term bande dessine wa
14、s first introduced in the 1930s and has become a popular genre of comics since the 1960s,alongside Japanese manga,American graphic novels and Anglophone cartoons.Representative BDs are The Adventures of Tintin(Herg),Gaston Lagaffe(Franquin),Asterix(Goscinny&Uderzo),Lucky Luke(Morris&Goscinny),and Th
15、e Smurfs(Peyo).2“La Vido des Retrovailles entre Herg et Tchang(The Video of the Reunion of Herg and Zhang)(1981),”Tintinomania(blog),January 2,2019,https:/ 1Reunion of Zhang and Herg at the Brussels Airport in 1981,with Zhang Xueren(son of Zhang)on the right.Image from“Zhang Chongren Chuanqi Yisheng
16、.”0432023年第6卷 第1期国际比较文学国际比较文学INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE LITERATURETintin began to be serialized in Le Petit Vingtime（The Little Twentieth）in 1929，the youth weekly supplement of the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtime Sicle（The Twentieth Century）.Each story in this series unfolds how the journalist protagonist Tintin restores justice and helps the weak around the world.In the years to come，Tintin became more and more popular：“from the point of view of sales（more than 120 million books sold in almost 40
