page_title: Zhang Chongren
section_title: Return to China
hierarchical_section_title: Zhang Chongren / Return to China
caption_attribution_description: English: Zhang Chongren (Tchang Tchong-jen) Memorial HallFrançais&#160;: Hall Mémorial de Zhang Chongren (Tchang Tchong-jen)中文（简体）‎: 张充仁纪念馆
context_page_description: Zhang Chongren, also known as Chang Chong-jen, was a Chinese sculptor best remembered in Europe as a friend of Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist and creator of The Adventures of Tintin. The two met when Zhang was an art student in Brussels.
context_section_description: At the end of his studies in Brussels in 1935, Zhang made a tour of France, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Italy before returning home to China. Upon his arrival back in Shanghai in 1936, Zhang held a number of shows exhibiting his drawings and sculptures. He also established the Chongren Studio to further his art and to teach.
  Hergé lost contact with him during the invasion of China by Japan (which is usually regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War) and the subsequent Chinese Civil War. More than four decades would pass before the two friends would meet again. In an instance of life mirroring art, Hergé managed to resume contact with his old friend Zhang Chongren, years after Tintin rescued the fictional Chang in the closing pages of Tintin in Tibet. Zhang had been a street sweeper during the Cultural Revolution, before becoming the head of the Fine Arts Academy in Shanghai during the 1970s.
  After the economic liberalization of China from 1979, Zhang received widespread acknowledgement in the Chinese art community. A collection of his oil paintings and sculptures were published and in his later years, Zhang worked as an editor and translator of several books on art. Among the portraits he has painted are those of Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and French President François Mitterrand.
  Zhang returned to Europe for a reunion with Hergé in 1981 upon invitation of the French government. In 1989 he received French citizenship and settled down to teach in the Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne, where he died in 1998. Shortly after his death, a memorial museum dedicated to him was established in Qibao, Shanghai. A number of his paintings and sculptures are held in the China Museum of Fine Art in Beijing and the China Museum of Revolutionary Warfare.
caption: Zhang Chongren Memorial Hall, Qibao Old Town
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