History Recap / TintinTheBlueLotus

* ChemicallyInducedInsanity: The Rajaijah Juice or "poison of madness" pops up [[Recap/TintinCigarsOfThePharaoh again]], though at the end, Dr. Fang develops a cure for its effects.
* CloudCuckooLander: A Chinese businessman is hit by a dart dipped in Rajaijah, the ''poison of madness''. Later in the story, Didi has also turned insane after being poisoned with Rajaijah. Tintin is injected with appears to the stuff by Mitsuhirato, but a Sons of the Dragon swapped it for water.

* TheDragon: Mistuhirato is this to Rastapopoulous, managing the local Chinese affairs of the latter's opium-trafficking ring.

* EvilBrit: Dawson, the head of the International Concession police. See CorruptCop above.

* FalseFlagOperation: Mitsuhirato staged the sabotage of the Shanghai-Nanking railway "by Chinese renegades", giving the Japanese a pretext to invade China.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar and PublicSecretMessage: Hergé's friend, a Chinese foreign exchange student named Zhang Chong Ren, told him a lot about Chinese culture and society, including the then current situation in Asia, where Japan had militarily occupied China. He also wrote all the Chinese signs, billboards, ideograms and texts seen in the backgrounds. As a BilingualBonus only Chinese people could read these. This also might explain why the book wasn't censored from the start because many of these texts are anti-Japanese slogans, like for instance: ''Boycott Japanese products'', ''Abolish unfair treaties'' and ''Down with Imperialism''. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint and threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that [[StreisandEffect it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny]] and would make Hergé [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity "world-famous"]]. [[invoked]]

* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: Zhang Zhong Ren, who wrote the Chinese texts in the story, signed his name twice - in Chinese - on two billboards.
* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: There are the Thom(p)sons, of course, but also, one of the Japanese military officials looks almost identical to Mitsuhirato, just with a more hooked nose.

* NationalStereotypes: Subverted. The story pokes fun at the Europeans' perception of the Chinese, debunking many clichés. Similarly, Tchang Tchong Yen asks Tintin why he saved him, because he always heard that all white people are evil and racist. On the other hand, the story is very anti-Japanese. Hergé balanced this by introducing a Japanese man, Mr. Kuraki, in ''The Crab With The Golden Claws'', who is shown as a good character.

* OneSteveLimit: Oddly enough, there are two Tchangs in the story. Besides Tintin's young friend, there's the agent of the Sons of the Dragon who steals Mitsuhirato's poison.

* OverlyStereotypicalDisguise: In the first and arguably the funniest instance of the Thom(p)sons doing this, they show up wearing 17th-century Qing-dynasty Mandarin robes, confident that they will blend right into a Chinese town. They then fail to notice an entire town parading behind them and laughing.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Gibbons, a racist white man who mistreats every Chinese person he meets (though he was politically correct for the era, which had a different zeitgeist).

* {{Seppuku}}: Mitsuhirato commits it after being captured. As was usual for the time in western sources, this is instead called 'hara-kiri'.
* ShownTheirWork: This album is often called Hergé's first real masterpiece. Compared to the previous albums it's well documented and researched, a strong and logical plot, beautifully illustrated and also takes the opportunity to debunk some inaccurate western stereotypes about China.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the start of the story, the fakir is reported to have escaped. He never shows up again, however.

* EvilAllAlong: When Rastapopoulos was first introduced, he seemed to be a hot-tempered but nice person. Here, he's revealed to be the head of the drug smuggling operation and BigBad

* GanglandDriveBy: Happens to Tintin but he is fortunately saved by a young man working for the Sons of the Dragon.

%%* EvilAllAlong: Rastapopoulos.

* BiggerBad: Mitsuhirato's Japanese superior, seen conversing with him on the phone several times. Ultimately, the Japanese military leadership.

* InsaneEqualsViolent: After being averted in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', it's [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] here. Poison darts drive people insane, and the resultant m2admen are childlike, silly and harmless... except for [[AxCrazy that one guy who develops a fixation with decapitation]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar and PublicSecretMessage: Hergé's friend, a Chinese foreign exchange student named Zhang Chong Ren, told him a lot about Chinese culture and society, including the then current situation in Asia, where Japan had militarily occupied China. He also wrote all the Chinese signs, billboards, ideograms and texts seen in the backgrounds. As a BilingualBonus only Chinese people could read these. This also might explain why the book wasn't censored from the start because many of these texts are anti-Japanese slogans, like for instance: ''Boycott Japanese products'', ''Abolish unfair treaties'' and ''Down with Imperialism''. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint and threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that [[StreisandEffect it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny]] and would make Hergé [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity "world-famous"]].

* CloudCuckooLander: A Chinese businessman is hit by a dart dipped in Rajaijah, the ''poison of madness''. Later in the story Didi has also turned insane after being poisoned with Rajaijah. Tintin is injected with appears to the stuff by Mitsuhirato, but a Sons of the Dragon swapped it for water.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar and PublicSecretMessage: Hergé's friend, a Chinese foreign exchange student named Zhang Chong Ren, told him a lot about Chinese culture and society, including the then current situation in Asia, where Japan had military occupied China. He also wrote all the Chinese signs, billboards, ideograms and texts seen in the backgrounds. As a BilingualBonus only Chinese people could read these. This also might explain why the book wasn't censored from the start because many of these texts are anti-Japanese slogans, like for instance: ''Boycott Japanese products'', ''Abolish unfair treaties'' and ''Down with Imperialism''. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint and threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague. Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that [[StreisandEffect it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny]] and would make Hergé [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity "world-famous"]].

%%* HappilyAdopted: Chang torwards the end.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: There's the Thom(p)sons, of course, but also, one of the Japanese military officials looks almost identical to Mitsuhirato, just with a more hooked nose.

* KidnappedByAnAlly: Wang Chen-Yee has his men kidnap Tintin while the latter is enroute to India because he needs Tintin's assistance.

* NationalStereotypes: Subverted. The story pokes fun at the Europeans' perception of the Chinese, debunking many clichés. Similarly Tchang Tchong Yen asks Tintin why he saved him, because he always heard that all white people are evil and racist. On the other hand the story is very anti-Japanese. Hergé balanced this by introducing a Japanese man, Mr. Kuraki, in ''The Crab With The Golden Claws'', who is shown as a good character.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The books depicts Mitsuhirato as staging a thinly-disguised version of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident Mukden Incident]], thereby paving the way for Japan's occupation of Shanghai. And at the end it shows the fallout at the League of Nations, and Japan's delegates walking out.

* StaircaseTumble: Happens to one of the servants carrying Tintin's luggage downstairs. It helps to discover that Snowy was locked in on of the trunks.

* ThwartedCoupDeGrace: Chang and allies save Tintin as well as Mr and Mrs Wang in the nick of time before Didi could decapitate them.

* AWayOutOfACaveIn: The imprisoned Tintin notices a mouse disappearing between the cracks of the floor panels of his prison cell. He then tries to lift one of the panels but realizes that it's too heavy. Cue the panel being lifting from below where his allies dug a way up to reach him.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Gibbons, a racist white man who mistreats every Chinese person he meets (though he was politically correct for the era, [[CaptainObvious which had a different zeitgeist]]).

* WeaponizedCamera: A camera with a built-in tommy-gun is used to try and assassin Tintin but the assault fails because the [[ConvenientMisfire gun jams up]].

* AWayOutOfACaveIn: The source of the page image. The imprisoned Tintin notices a mouse disappearing between the cracks of the floor panels of his prison cell. He then tries to lift one of the panels but realizes that it's too heavy. Cue the panel being lifting from below where his allies dug a way up to reach him.

* PsychoSerum: Rajaijah juice, the 'Poison of Madness'.

* AdaptedOut: Several parts of the album did not make it to the Ellipse-Nelvana animated series.

* AffablyEvil: Mitsuhirato.

* BigBad: Mitsuhirato is actually subservant to Rastapopoulos.

* BigGood: Wang Chen-Yee.

* {{Eagleland}}: Gibbons is a typical flavour 2.

* EvilAllAlong: Rastapopoulos.

* HappilyAdopted: Chang torwards the end.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Rastapopoulos to Mitsuhirato.

* PsychoForHire: Mitsuhirato.

* RedHerring: The Fakir at the beginning of the story warns Tintin to watch out for a dark-haired Asian man with glasses, whom Tintin briefly suspects may be his Chinese visitor. But no, that guy loses his mind as soon as he appears. Funnily enough, Tintin isn't at all suspicious when he first meets Mitsuhirato, who also matches the description.
** The joke is that the warning is almost completely useless, because practically ''everyone'' Tintin meets in China is a dark-haired yellow-skinned man with glasses...

* DatedHistory: The allusions to the Japanese occupation of China and Tintin watching the news in a film theater are elements that make the story out-dated in these respects.

* VillainHasAPoint: When Dawson turns Tintin over to the Japanese, Tintin protests that he is on neutral ground. Dawson then makes the perfectly legitimate point that since Tintin does not have papers allowing him to be in the settlement, Dawson has every right to throw him out - evil, yes, but he ''is'' correct. However, it should be noted that he stole Tintin's papers so he could kick him out and hand him to the Japanese.

* TimeMarchesOn: The allusions to the Japanese occupation of China and Tintin watching the news in a film theater are elements that make the story out-dated in these respects.

* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: Zhang Zhong Ren, who wrote the Chinese texts in the story, signed his name twice - in Chinese- on two billboards.

* InsaneEqualsViolent: After being averted in ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'', it's [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] here. Poison darts drive people insane, and the resultant madmen are childlike, silly and harmless... except for [[AxCrazy that one guy who develops a fixation with decapitation]].

* InstantMessengerPigeon

* LaserGuidedKarma: Tintin defends a rickshaw driver from Gibbons. Later, when the Japanese put a price on his head, he manages to escape the town with the help of the driver's brother.

* MistakenForAnImposter: The man with the supposedly fake beard at the "Blue Lotus".

* OutdatedOutfit: In the first and arguably the funniest instance of the Thom(p)sons doing this, they show up wearing 17th-century Qing-dynasty Mandarin robes, confident that they will blend right into a Chinese town. They then fail to notice an entire town parading behind them and laughing.

* WigDressAccent: Subverted. At one point, a man with a large, bushy beard and wearing sunglasses and a coat enters the bad guys' opium den and is immediately recognized by them as Tintin in disguise. Only when they beat him up, it turns out it ''isn't'' Tintin, just a man who happens to look like him with a large beard.

* DivingSave: Didi saves Tintin this way from the bullets coming from a GanglandDriveBy in the streets.

!!Tropes

* LaserGuidedKarma: Tintin defends a rickshaw driver from an abusive racist bully. Later, when the Japanese put a price on his head, he manages to escape the town with the help of the driver's brother.

* ShoutOut:
** Hergé was so grateful for Zhang Chongren's help that he named the character Chang Chong-chen after him, ([[UsefulNotes/WhyMaoChangedHisName it's a different transliteration scheme]]).
** In the ComicBook/{{Urbanus}} story ''De Tenor van Tollembeek'' Urbanus performs in China. One of the background characters is Tintin in his ''Blue Lotus'' outfit travelling by riskha.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Gibbons, a racist white man who mistreats every Chinese person he meets.

** DrillSergeantNasty: How he gets away with his act, he holds up a number of fingers equal to the number of days of punishment for various offenseslike not shaving (four days) or a piece of paper blowing in the wind ("Four days? But general, it's just a piece of-''eight'' days!? I- yes, general! Thank you, general!").