The Blue Lotus (The Adventures of Tintin)

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Summary: The poison that makes mad!
Review: Tintin's crusade against the drug traffic in the far east continues. He enjoys the hospitality of the maharajah of Rawhaijputalah when he is informed that his assistance is urgently needed in Shanghai. An arrow-shot silences the messenger before he can disclose more: radjaidjah - the poison that makes mad! Tintin departs immediately to Shanghai where Mr. Mitsuhirato, an exquisitely polite Japanese gentleman advises him to travel back because the maharajah is in danger. Somebody fires at Tintin and his tea is spiced with poison (poor Snowy survives). And he makes an enemy of Mr. Gibbons, an American Tycoon, who beats a poor Chinese coolie. Mr. Gibbons complains to Mr. Lawson, who is the chief of an international concession inside Shanghai, and, since white anglo-saxon gentlemen are tied together by a tacit agreement, Tintin has one enemy more.

Mr. Wang Yen Ghie, a dignified Chinese gentleman, establishes contact with Tintin. He reveals that Mitsuhirato is a spy and a criminal mastermind who supplies half of Europe with dope. Those who oppose him are demolished with radjaidjah. Mr. Wang's son, who served as Tintin's secret bodyguard, is his latest victim. Mitsuhirato has his headquarters in "The blue Lotus", an opium-den, but he strives for prestige: One night Tintin witnesses how this would-be-dignitary commits an act of sabotage. The Japanese Government plays this incident up and invades China. Mitsuhirato denounces Tintin to the military court, but Tintin's sympathy for Mr. Wang's family is so great that he risks capital punishment in order to find an antidote against radjaidjah. He penetrates the international concession and learns that professor Fan Se Yeng - a specialist for mental illness - has been kidnapped after spending an evening with two of Tintin's old acquaintances: Gibbons and Rastapopoulos. When the Yang-tze-Kiang overflows its banks, Tintin saves the life of Chang, a young Chinese boy who becomes one of his closest friends. But Dawson - who is in Mitsuhirato's debt - extradites Tintin to the military dictatorship...

An undisputed demonstration of Herge's artistic skill "The Blue Lotus" is also the most bluntly realistic volume in the Tintin series. Some scenes would frighten even grown-ups: There is Mr. Wang's son, outwardly normal, but with the fixed idea to cut off heads. Or Mitsuhirato, who consoles Tintin with mocking sympathy while giving him an injection of radjaijah. Herge shows us the opium-addicts and the cow that drowned in the flood. Much attention is paid to the background: vases, paintings, dragons...This richly illustrated volume is truely handmade, not assembly-line work. Herge's sympathy with the Chinese people is obvious and he takes a firm anti-racist stand: Gibbons is portrayed as truly repellent when he claims to teach the poor coolie "the manners of our laudable occidental civilization" while he beats him with a cane! Japan however is portrayed as imperialistic superpower: The book was written in the thirties...

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Summary: Tintin fights opium smugglers in Singapore
Review: While staying with the rajah in India Tintin receives a mysterious visitor from Singapore. The visitor has come to warn him of danger, but before he can deliver the message he is shot by a blow dart dipped in poison that makes the recipient absent minded. As the poison takes effect he gasps out one name... "Mitsuhirato" Tintin sets off to Singapore to find the mysterious Mitsuhirato and trouble...

This is a more serious story than many in the Tintin series: Tintin is continually crossing checkpoints lined with barbed wire, relations between Japanese Chinese and Europeans are not sugarcoated, and Tintin is even shot at one point (a flesh wound - there is a sequel after all). This should not cause people to shy away from this book or from giving it to children. Things are not so terrifying. The poison used by the opium smugglers causes people to go insane instead of killing them and things end happily.