The Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, aka Hergé (pronounced EHR-jay), created the beloved Tintin character in 1929, and produced a series of 24 comic books with the title The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin is a Belgian reporter who goes around the world and by chance, always finds himself caught up in dangerous situations and ends up saving the day.
Despite Tintin's success today, it received an equal amount of criticism and controversy for Hergé's depiction of other cultures, which, in today's terms would be considered horribly racist. Some might point to the volumes titled "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" and "Tintin in the Congo" to be blatantly so.
However, the fifth volume, "The Blue Lotus", would change Hergé's view of the world and other peoples for the better. In it, Tintin travels to China to cover the events that were happening during the 1931 Japanese invasion.
In order to provide an accurate depiction of not just the events prior, but also Chinese culture in general, Hergé took inspiration from Zhang Chongren, a Chinese student at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts, with whom he became friends from the time they spent together as he wrote "The Blue Lotus".
Zhang became Hergé's main source of information as he had actually left the same day the Japanese invaded China. He also made sure that the facts and illustrations were correct.
"The Blue Lotus" was published in 1936 with critical acclaim, and is considered one of Hergé's finest works, influencing subsequent volumes.
Zhang returned to China after a few years, and the pair didn't see each other again until more than 40 years later, in 1981, when Zhang flew back to Belgium to meet with Hergé for one last time. Hergé passed away two years later.
(Image credit: VCG Photo; Jean-Marie Valheur/Quora)