Power Station of Art (PSA) is delighted to welcome Michael Farr, an academic who has studied Tintin and its author Hergé, to deliver a speech entitled ‘Tintin Returns to Shanghai’. As a writer who has had access to and interviewed Hergé, Michael Farr has written more than ten books on Tintin and Hergé, and like Tintin, in his early years as a journalist, he has searched and collected countless rare materials on Hergé’s creation of Tintin, which are included in his books “Tintin: The Complete Companion”. Ms Zou Xiaoping, translator of the Chinese edition of “Tintin: The Complete Companion”, will also join in conversation with Mike Farr after his talk.
From the lecturer
“In the ever-expanding world of Tintin, it is a significant milestone that with your exhibition Tintin has returned to Shanghai, the great port city he first discovered in 1934. Hergé, the brilliant Belgian artist who had created Tintin for a children’s newspaper five years earlier, had already sent Tintin on his way with adventures in Soviet Russia, the Belgian Congo, America, Egypt and India. It was non-stop, breathless excitement that was instantly successful.
His drawing skill and technique was improving with each adventure, but the most important development came with his meeting, on the eve of sending Tintin to China, with a talented Chinese artist studying in Brussels. Chang Chong-chen, who came from Shanghai, had won a scholarship to the Académie des Beaux Arts and taken away a number of prizes for both painting and sculpture. The meeting had been arranged by a friend who thought that Hergé should learn more about China before sending his up-and-coming reporter there.
Chang came to have tea at Hergé’s Brussels home on May 1, 1934, and, born in the same month of the same year (1907) they immediately became friends. Thereafter, during the writing of Tintin’s Chinese adventure The Blue Lotus, Chang would come every week to talk about Chinese art, philosophy and customs, and teach Hergé how to draw in the Chinese manner with a fine brush as well as his usual ink and dip pen. He presented his new Belgian friend with books, manuals and materials. For Hergé it was a revelation that was to be of value for the rest of his life. He adapted his style and created the ligneclaire(clear line) for which he became famous. The Blue Lotus,and its images of China and Shanghai, was his first masterpiece. That is why it is so important and appropriate that Tintin should be here today – at your exhibition.”
—— Michael Farr
Michael Farr
Michael Farr was born in Paris in 1953 and four years later The Adventures of Tintin were the first books he read. Like Tintin he was for many years a reporter, first for Reuters and then for The Daily Telegraph in many of the countries frequented by the Belgian ace reporter. After meeting Hergé, he was to become a pioneer Tintinologist, the biographer of both Tintin and Hergé, and the leading British expert on Tintin. He is the author of more than a dozen books on the subject, including Tintin: The Complete Companion, Tintin& Co. and TheAdventures of Hergé, Creator of Tintin. He has translated a number of books about Tintin from French into English, and is currently engaged in a new English translation of The Adventures of Tintin for the digital edition that is appearing as an AppleApp. He travels widely lecturing on Tintin. His books on other subjects include Vanishing Borders (shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Award) and Berlin! Berlin! He now lives in London with his wife and daughter, both of whom are reporters.
Zou Xiaoping
Born in the 1970s, Zou graduated from the French Department of Shanghai International Studies University and has long been involved in the exchange and promotion of trade and investment and trade exchanges between China and Europe (China and Belgium). As an amateur translator, her translations include: “Tintin: The Complete Companion”, “Tintin and the Art of the Alphabet”, and “Bourg and Billy”.
Time: 28/08/2021 17:00 — 19:00
Special Guest: Zou Xiaoping
Language:Chinese/English
How to participate: Join us by searching Bilibili for the official account “Power Station of Art”
