Tintin's forgotten friend

Artist Zhang Chongren in 1936. Photos provided to Shanghai Star

Zhang Chongren (1907-1998) is more famous in Europe than China, and few have heard of him in his hometown, Shanghai.

But Zhang is famous around the world for being a friend of Tintin, a fictional character who is the protagonist in the story The Blue Lotus, and other adventures about China.

When the author of the Adventures of Tintin, Belgian cartoonist Herge — the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983) — wanted to write a story about Tintin in China, he was introduced to Zhang Chongren, who at that time was a student at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

Zhang (also known as Chang Chong-jen) became Chang Chong-Chen under the pen of Herge, and accompanied Tintin on his adventure to China, introducing Tintin, as well as readers in Europe, Chinese people's fight against Japanese invaders, who claimed they had good intentions in China.

A new exhibition at Shanghai Sculpture and Painting Institute (SPSI) Art Museum has made an unprecedented study of Zhang, combing through his journey of life and art.

A bronze sculpture of a slim hand sits in a glass case under the exhibition banner. It is a small hand, with slender fingers. It is moulded from Zhang's own hand. Chinese maestro artist Qi Baishi once praised him as "the master hand in sculpture".

"Mr Zhang Chongren is one of the founding figures in China's modern sculpture art," says Xiao Gu, director of SPSI. "He deserves to be remembered, and brought out of the shadow of history."

Zhang was born to a wood carving craftsman's family in the Shanghai suburb of Xujiahui (known as Zi-Kar-Wei at the time). His father left him in a French orphanage after his mother died when he was only seven.

He grew up in the orphanage, learning French and drawing. He demonstrated great skill in painting and won a scholarship to study in the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Belgium, where at the suggestion of Prof. Egide Rombaux, he turned his focus to sculpture.