He secretely follows Mitsuhirato, a Japanese spy and owner of the Blue Lotus

他私自跟蹤平野松成先生（一位日本的間諜與藍蓮花的老闆）

to a place outside of the city.

到了城市外的郊區

There he witnesses an explosion.

他在那裡目睹了爆炸事件

Mitsuhirato and two other gangsters blew up the train track to Shanghai

平野松成和兩個壞人把通往上海的鐵軌炸掉

and seconds later they put the blame on Chinese bandits.

幾秒之後　他們把錯歸咎於中國土匪

The event that was depicted in "The Blue Lotus" is in fact based on a true story.

藍蓮花描繪的事件是基於一則真實事件

An event known as The Manchurian Incident

這事件就是大家熟知的九一八事變

The Blue Lotus

探索丁丁歷險記

This comic was originally published in 1934 to 1935

丁丁與九一八事變

and it contained a lot of information about China, that the western world was simply not aware of.

藍蓮花

So what's different in this comic compared to Tintin's former adventures

這部漫畫是在1934年至1935年間出版

is that Hergé finally didn’t use stereotypes and in fact paid more attention on telling the story as accurate as possible.

包含了許多西方世界未知的中國資訊

And thanks to the help of his Chinese friend Chang, or Zhang Chong Ren,

這部漫畫與丁丁之前的冒險漫畫差別在於

who was an arts student in Belgium,

艾爾吉沒有利用刻板印象　反而將故事說的很詳盡

he learned about Chinese culture and also about the Manchurian Incident,

而且感謝當時就讀比利時藝術學院的中國朋友

which is also known as the „Mukden Incident“ or in Chinese "jiu yi ba shibian", which means 9/18 Incident.

張充仁的幫忙

On September 18 in 1931, the Japanese detonated a small amount of dynamite

讓他了解中國文化以及九一八事變

close to a railway line to Shenyang that was owned by Japan.

（英文為 Manchurian Incident 或 Mukden Incident）

Compared to "The Adventures of Tintin",

於1931年9月18日　日本人利用少量的炸藥

the railway line was barely damaged and a train passed over it just a few minutes later.

有意炸毀自行改建的南滿鐵路

The Japanese blamed Chinese troups as a pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.

與丁丁歷險記的內容相比

The region was important for Japan, because it was rich in natural resources and they could gain politcal power.

南滿鐵路些微損害　且幾分鐘後便有火車經過

This false flag event was soon exposed and led to Japans resignation from the League of Nations in March 1933.

日本人將錯怪罪於中國東北軍　以便其能入侵與征服滿洲

In 1939, Soong Mei-Ling, the wife of political leader Chiang Kai-Shek invited Herge to visit them.

滿洲一帶對日本相當重要　因為自然資源很豐富　而且可以獲得政權

Hergé wasn’t able to do so, because of the upcoming World War II. He finally visited her in Taiwan in 1973.

事實很快就被揭發了　導致日本於1933年3月退出了國際聯盟