Tintin and Hergé, the world’s largest Tintin-themed exhibition is proving popular with visitors flooding into Shanghai Power Station of Art to review the classic Belgian comics.

Opened on Aug 6, the exhibition is jointly launched by Power Station of Art and the Hergé Museum in Belgium. It showcases collections of original copies and pencil drafts of the comic-book series The Adventures of Tintin, and depicts his father, known by his pen name Hergé, by rich quotations, anecdotes and documentaries.

Created in 1929, Tintin has become one of the most famous and popular cartoon characters of the 20th century, with more than 300 million sales around the globe, and known to Chinese fans in the 1980s in the form of picture-story books.

The exhibition specially highlights the experience of how the encounter of Hergé, a Western artist and Zhang Chongren, a Shanghai architectural student in Belgium sparked a totally new Tintin album "The Blue Lotus." 

It unfolded a tale in China, a country as yet unknown and mysterious to Tintin, and many European readers.

Despite the lingering pandemic, visitors of all ages are seeking in-person experiences with masks. 

They came to soak up the joyful atmosphere here, pick out books or Tintin products they like, and some enjoy traveling through Hergé’s life via various sketches he drew at different stages, and taking photos of the original creations.

The exhibition will run until Oct 31.

Check out The China Report, our new weekly newsletter. Subscribe here!