Editing The Adventures of Tintin (section)

=== Controversy ===
[[File:Tintin in the Congo - Rhino.jpg|thumb|right|The early ''Adventures of Tintin'' depicted controversial images, which Hergé later described as "a transgression of my youth". In 1975, he substituted this sequence with one in which the rhino accidentally discharges Tintin's rifle.{{sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1pp=38,49|2a1=Farr|2y=2001|2p=22}}]]

[[File:Bohlwinkel.jpg|thumb|right|The character of [[Mr. Bohlwinkel]] has been criticised as a negative [[Stereotypes of Jews|Jewish stereotype]].]]

The earliest stories in ''The Adventures of Tintin'' have been criticised{{sfnm|1a1=BBC News 28 April|1y=2010|2a1=Beckford|2y=2007}} for animal cruelty; [[colonialism]]; violence; and [[ethnocentric]], caricatured portrayals of non-Europeans.{{sfn|Farr|2001|p=22}} While the Hergé Foundation has presented such criticism as naïveté and scholars of Hergé such as Harry Thompson have said that "Hergé did what he was told by the Abbé Wallez",{{sfn|Thompson|1991|p=40}} Hergé himself felt that his background made it impossible to avoid prejudice, stating: "I was fed the prejudices of the [[bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] society that surrounded me".{{sfn|Sadoul|Didier|2003}}

In ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'', the [[Bolshevik]]s were presented as villains. Hergé drew on ''Moscow Unveiled'', a work given to him by Wallez and authored by [[Joseph Douillet]], the former Belgian consul in Russia, that is highly critical of the Soviet regime, although Hergé contextualised this by noting that in Belgium, at the time a devout Catholic nation, "anything Bolshevik was [[atheism|atheist]]".{{sfn|Sadoul|Didier|2003}} In the story, Bolshevik leaders are motivated by personal greed and a desire to deceive the world. Tintin discovers, buried, "the hideout where [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky]], and [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] have collected together wealth stolen from the people". In 1999, the issue of Tintin's politics was the subject of a debate in the French parliament;{{sfn|BBC News 4 February|1999}} this event prompted the British weekly newspaper ''[[The Economist]]'' to publish an editorial on the matter.{{sfn|The Economist 28 January|1999}}

''Tintin in the Congo'' has been criticised as presenting the Africans as naïve and primitive.{{sfn|BBC News 17 July|2007}} In the original work, Tintin is shown at a blackboard addressing a class of African children: "My dear friends. I am going to talk to you today about your fatherland: Belgium".{{efn|"{{lang|fr|Mes chers amis, je vais vous parler aujourd'hui de votre patrie: La Belgique.}}" }} Hergé redrew this in 1946 to show a lesson in mathematics.{{sfnm|1a1=Cendrowicz|1y=2010|2a1=Farr|2y=2001|2p=25}} Hergé later admitted the flaws in the original story, excusing it saying: "I portrayed these Africans according to&nbsp;... this purely paternalistic spirit of the time".{{sfn|Sadoul|Didier|2003}} Sue Buswell, who was the editor of Tintin at Methuen, summarised the perceived problems with the book in 1988 as "all to do with rubbery lips and heaps of dead animals",{{efn|"Dead animals" refers to the fashion for big-game hunting at the time of the work's original publication.}} although Thompson noted her quote may have been "taken out of context".{{sfn|Thompson|1991|p=44}}

Drawing on [[André Maurois]]' {{lang|fr|Les Silences du colonel Bramble}}, Hergé presents Tintin as a [[big-game hunter]], accidentally killing fifteen [[antelope]] as opposed to the one needed for the evening meal. However, concerns over the number of dead animals led ''Tintin''{{'}}s Scandinavian publishers to request changes. A page of Tintin killing a [[rhinoceros]] by drilling a hole in its back and inserting a stick of dynamite was deemed excessive; Hergé replaced the page with one in which the rhino accidentally discharges Tintin's rifle while he sleeps under a tree.{{sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1pp=38,49|2a1=Farr|2y=2001|2p=22}} In 2007, the UK's [[Commission for Racial Equality]] called for the book to be pulled from shelves after a complaint, stating: "It beggars belief that in this day and age [[Borders (retailer)|Borders]] would think it acceptable to sell and display Tintin in the Congo."{{sfnm|1a1=Beckford|1y=2007|2a1=BBC News 12 July|2y=2007}} In August 2007, a Congolese student filed a complaint in Brussels that the book was an insult to the Congolese people. Public prosecutors investigated, and a criminal case was initiated, although the matter was transferred to a civil court.{{sfnm|1a1=Samuel|1y=2011|2a1=BBC News 13 February|2y=2012}} Belgium's Centre for Equal Opportunities warned against "over-reaction and hyper [[political correctness]]".{{sfn|Vrielink|2012}}

Hergé altered some of the early albums in subsequent editions, usually at the demand of publishers. For example, at the instigation of his American publishers, many of the African characters in ''Tintin in America'' were re-coloured to make their race [[Caucasian race|Caucasian]] or ambiguous.{{sfn|Mills|1996}} ''The Shooting Star'' originally had an American villain with the Jewish surname of "Blumenstein".{{sfn|Eschner|2017}} This proved controversial, as the character exhibited exaggerated, [[stereotype|stereotypically]] Jewish characteristics. "Blumenstein" was changed to an American with a less ethnically specific name, [[Mr. Bohlwinkel]], in later editions and subsequently to a South American of a [[fictional country]] São Rico. Hergé later discovered that 'Bohlwinkel' was also a Jewish name.{{sfn|Ewing|1995}} In recent years, even Tintin's politics of peace have been investigated.{{sfn|Rösch|2014}}