Tintin Forums

I've read of how Hergé apparently had some sort of crisis that involved Chang (his real life friend)and it inspired Tintin in Tibet, or he completed Tibet despite of some crisis, I don't fully understand...
I've never been able to find many detials about this topic, which I find very intriguing but elusive - perhaps someone can straighten me out on this one?

It was simply that Chang went back to China in the Thirties, and they lost touch with each other.
Over the years Hergé tried to find his old friend, and failed.
To a certain extent it seems he began to believe that other problems in his life (his marriage breakdown, his lack of success as a fine artist etc.) could be resolved if he could only meet Chang again and re-live happier days.
Sadly Hergé was already terminally ill when he did meet Chang again, and while they were cordial to one another, it didn't seem to live up to his expectations either, so it wasn't quite the magical experience he had wanted it to be.

Jeez, jock, that is a depressing tale.

How could they just be "cordial to one another" when Hergé seemed haunted by Chang's absence for so long?
I've never been terminally ill, thank God, but it seems that you'd almost have to be more than cordial at a reunion like that.

waveofplague
How could they just be "cordial to one another"

I think that Hergé placed too much significance on the friendship they had had in the 1930s, and it took on an importance to him completely out of all proportion to what it was or could be.
The press didn't help matters either - you can see the meeting in Tintin et moi; it's basically a media spectacle and a genuinly sorry sight to see Hergé so clearly ill and still mobbed by journalists.

When he met Chang again in 1981 he couldn't help but be disappointed - it failed to live up to what he had hoped for.

I feel that Hergé was deeply grateful to Chang for getting him to start with all the research and accuracy that he was so famous for later on.

In the books, the whole Tintin - Chang relationship seems a bit uncalled for. In Tintin in Tibet they haven't seen each other for over twenty years yet Tintin shed tears and seem very emotional. Even in Blue Lotus it seems a bit odd that Tintin just picks up this recently orphaned kid and makes him tag along.

Perhaps Hergé's own feelings for Chang flooded over into the books and Tintin's fondness/friendship of Chang.

Even before I learnt the story behind the real Chang I always noticed something vaguely unfamiliar about how Tintin acted in regards to Chang. Chang in Blue Lotus is somewhat similar to Prisoners of the Sun and Zorrino's part, but Tintin in Tibet leaves that kind of casual friendship behind.

For lack of proper wording I would say that Tintin in Tibet in regards to Tintin/ Chang feels little less Tintin-ish and probably little more Hergé-an. Probably Hergé's personal situtation at the time of creation of Tibet also reflects this, not only in the white images which he have talked about but also storywise. Looking back to more simpler/easier times in the past, the good old days. Which is quite common as memory often keeps the more enjoyable moments and discards the problems that happened back then.

Oh no, how sad! I think this will make it doubly melancholy next time I read Tibet.

labrador road 26
In Tintin in Tibet they haven't seen each other for over twenty years still Tintin shed tears and seem very emotional.
I think we just have to accept that while the passage of time in the real world is greater, that the characters in the books are meant to be not much older than they were between the first and second of these adventures, and for them there have not been so many years; I for one am prepared to willingly suspend my disbelief on this point.

But yes, the fact that the real passage of time was much longer for Hergé does heighten the emotion of the story as you say: Hergé gives (burdens) Tintin - after what would have been two or three years to the characters in the comic world - with emotions equivalent to those that he himself had built up after decades in the real world.

In the books, the whole Tintin - Chang relationship seems a bit uncalled for

Why? It's platonic. Deep friendship, mateship - whatever you want to call it, it's a genuine and beautiful thing.

It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, really. Thank you for pointing that out.