Chang Chong-Chen

Chang Chong-Chen
Chang, by Hergé
Publication information
Publisher	Casterman (Belgium)
First appearance	The Blue Lotus (1936) The Adventures of Tintin
Created by	Hergé
In-story information
Full name	Chang Chong-Chen
Partnerships	List of main characters
Supporting character of	Tintin

Chang Chong-Chen (French: Tchang Tchong-Jen; Chinese: 張仲仁; pinyin: Zhāng Zhòngrén) is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Although Chang and Tintin only know each other for a short time, they form a deep bond which drives them to tears when they separate or are re-united.

Chang was based on the Chinese artist Zhang Chongren, a real friend of Hergé's.

The story which introduced him was to have a major effect on Hergé and Tintin, making it one of the most popular series of all time. His next appearance would also be in one of the most moving of Tintin's adventures.

In 1934, Hergé was about to start work on a story which would take Tintin to China. So far, he had taken a very stereotypical and clichéd view of the countries that Tintin visited: a Russia of starving peasants and brutal commissars; a Congo of simple-minded, uneducated villagers; an America of gangsters, cowboys and Indians; and an India of fakirs and maharajas.

In the process of planning his story, Hergé was contacted by a Father Gosset, chaplain to the Chinese students at Louvain University, who suggested that he do some actual research into life in China as it really was. Hergé agreed and Gosset introduced him to Zhang Chongren, a student at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.

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