Tchang, an art student, convinced Remi it was important to construct his stories in a better way, to avoid stereotypical characters and conduct better research.

According to Peeters, Tchang was born to a Shanghai family of artists. He studied French, art and sculpture. During the 1930s Tchang studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Brussels along with Remi. The outbreak of war inspired the two young artists.

"Tchang wanted to awaken in Herge (Remi) a sense of responsibility, arousing ethical, historical and political concerns which hitherto were absolutely foreign to him," Peeters says.

Remi said in a letter to a friend that "as I prepare my stories (of "The Blue Lotus"), I discovered a real sympathy and admiration for these (Chinese) people. I have a keen desire to understand it and like it."

"The Blue Lotus" is a particularly courageous book, by pursuing a stance quite different from those dominant in Europe, particularly in editorial pages. Tchang's Chinese-style painting also influenced Remi's subsequent drawings.

In 1935, Tchang returned to China and became a famous sculptor. During World War II, the two men lost contact. Remi recalled: "Tchang was, without doubt, one of the principal craftsmen of my evolution."

In his first letter to Tchang in 1975 when they resumed contact, Remi told his long-lost friend: "Not only for the assistance that you brought me at that time in my work, but also for the knowledge you brought me. Thanks to you, my life took a new orientation.

"You made me discover qualities of things, poetry, the feeling of the unity of man and universe."

The two artists finally met in 1981 in Belgium.

At the end of "The Blue Lotus," it is Tintin who left with tears in his eyes. And in "Tintin in Tibet," it is Mr Zhang (modeled on Tchang) who returns to save Tintin himself.

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