The Blue Lotus by Herge Casterman
The Blue Lotus marks Tintin's first exploits in the Far East, following the young adventurer's visits to the Congo, the US, the then-USSR and Egypt, among others.
It is the conclusion of a two-part comic series that began with Cigars of the Pharaoh, in which the story's quiff-haired hero continues his pursuit of a drug-smuggling cartel from Egypt to Shanghai.
For author Georges Prosper Remi - better known as Herge - The Blue Lotus also represented a departure from the crassly stereotypical and uninformed style in which he depicted other cultures and races in his previous books, often for comedic effect.
This change in attitude came after Herge was contacted by the chaplain to Chinese students at the University of Leuven. At the end of Cigars of the Pharaoh Herge had included a note saying the next instalment of the series would be set in China.
The chaplain, Father Gosset, was so concerned by this and the potential offence that could be caused to the Chinese that he contacted Herge in order to introduce him to a fellow artist and student at the university, Zhang Chongren. A close friendship between the two artists developed as Zhang taught Herge about Chinese culture and introduced him to the Chinese arts. Herge was so taken by what Zhang revealed that he included scenes in The Blue Lotus in which Tintin and his friend, Chang Chong-ren, exchange Western and Chinese stereotypes of one another, each time dismissing them as far from the truth.