China (Tintin's Travel Diaries) - Softcover

Dauber, Maximilien; Noblet, Martine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812018656 ISBN 13: 9780812018653

Publisher: B E S Pub Co, 1994

Synopsis

Answers questions about China's population, history, daily life, transportation, geography, culture, food, writing, and antiquities

About this title

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

From School Library Journal:

Gr 4-6-Herge's 1936 Tintin cartoons from The Blue Lotus are juxtaposed with a nonfiction text and mostly contemporary photographs to show what China is like today. Topic headings are all posed as questions (``Why is the Yellow River called the `River of Sorrow'?''; ``Why do the Chinese grow rice?,'' etc.). Each topic is given a two-page spread with a lead-in paragraph and a Tintin drawing on the left and an answer and full-color photos on the right. Some questions, e.g., ``Is God Chinese?,'' are rather gratuitous; some are badly answered; but most are merely superficial. The description of minorities in China contradicts itself by saying that they make up both 7 and 60 percent of the population, and misrepresents the Hui, who are ethnically Chinese followers of Islam. The food section states that people eat with chopsticks because they believe that metal knives and forks spoil the taste of food, a fatuous statement altogether. There are a number of other errors, some of which owe to a poor translation. Also, there are many mistakes in transcription (Suzhou, not Xuzhou; xiangqi, not kiangqi). Despite the fact that not only clerics wear long robes and no one wears the traditional skullcap on the Mainland, Herge's pictures contrast nicely with the mostly well-chosen photographs they accompany, which is some compensation for the book's flaws.-John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: B E S Pub Co
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0812018656
• ISBN 13: 9780812018653
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 75