Zhang Chongren

Early life

Zhang Chongren entered the world in 1907 as the child of a wood-carving artisan in Xujiahui, a Shanghai suburb at the time. Orphaned young, he was placed at age seven in the French Jesuit orphanage at Tou-Se-we, where he learned both art and French. Upon completing his schooling in 1928, he took up design work for the film industry and a local paper. A 1931 scholarship took him to Brussels’ Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. There, following Professor Egide Rombaux’s advice, he switched his focus from painting to sculpture.

Influence on Hergé

Hergé's early Tintin albums relied heavily on stereotypes, including evil Russian Bolsheviks, lazy Africans, and an America of gangsters and cowboys. After the newspaper run of Cigars of the Pharaoh, Hergé announced Tintin's next adventure would be set in China. Father Gosset, chaplain to Chinese students at the University of Leuven, wrote urging sensitivity, and in spring 1934 introduced Hergé to Zhang. The two became close friends; Zhang taught Hergé about Chinese history, culture, and art techniques. Hergé offered authorship credits, which Zhang declined. As a result, Hergé strove for accuracy in The Blue Lotus and later albums, and added the character Chang Chong-Chen as a token of appreciation.

Return to China

After finishing his studies in Brussels in 1935, Zhang toured France, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy before returning to Shanghai in 1936. There he held shows of his drawings and sculptures and established the Chongren Studio, an art school that attracted artists, architects, and celebrities. Hergé lost contact with him during Japan's invasion of China and the subsequent Chinese Civil War. Over four decades passed before they met again; Hergé resumed contact years after Tintin rescued the fictional Chang in Tintin in Tibet.

During the Cultural Revolution, Zhang worked as a street sweeper, later becoming head of the Fine Arts Academy in Shanghai in the 1970s. He worked as an editor and translator of art books and painted portraits of Deng Xiaoping and François Mitterrand. In 1981, he returned to Europe for a reunion with Hergé at the invitation of the French government. He received French citizenship in 1989 and taught in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, where he died in 1998.

A memorial museum dedicated to him was established in Qibao, Shanghai, and his works are held in the China Museum of Fine Art in Beijing and the China Museum of Revolutionary Warfare.