Chang Chong Chen

Since i was a little girl, i used to be amazed and inspired by the Belgian cartoonist Herge(Georges Remy)'s famous work The adventures of Tin Tin. Other than reading about how Harry Potter and his friends grew up from mischievous little kids to mature and happy young adults and how they dealt with everything that came in their way, i also leaned on Tin Tin for a dose of adventure and lessons about friendship and hope. Although i was a Sinophobe(which was quite ironic because majority of my blood is Chinese- since my mom is Filipino-Spanish and dad's a full Chinese) back then, my favorites among all the 24 Tin Tin comics are The Blue Lotus, Tin Tin in Tibet, Cigars of the Pharoah and Prisoners of the Sun. The first two had Tin Tin's young loyal Chinese friend Chang Chong Chen in the story.
Chang was quiet, sweet, nice, courageous and very brave- sounds like some freaking Gryffindor. He was an orphan who almost drowned in a flood when the orphanage he lives in was washed away and Tin Tin saved him. Then Tin Tin, Wang Chen Yee and Mrs. Wang were saved from being chopped off by a mad Di Di by Chang's very brave intervention along with Wang Chen Yee's homies. After that Wang Chen Yee adopted Chang and Tin Tin went home to Belgium. Then some time later, Chang went to live in Hong Kong and Wang Chen Yee's brother in London wanted him to live there so Chang sets off to London but the plane he was riding on crashed in the Himalayas. Tin Tin had a dream of him calling for help in Tibet, so he sets off for Kathmandu and then to Tibet after all the beggings and reluctance of Captain Haddock, Tharkey the sherpa and many others. Chang on the other hand, survived the crash but he was taken by the yeti. Good thing, the yeti took care of him and grew very fond. In the end, Tin Tin managed to save Chang from the yeti and then in the Castafiore Emerald, Chang is in London working in his adopted uncle's home. I was a first grader back then and i believed that Shanghai was part of Hong Kong(for some unknown reasons) and Hukow was Macau. The story is set in Shanghai(which i think back then was Hong Kong) and it was near Hukow(in what i heard back then Macau) where Tin Tin first met Chang- so i came to believe that Chang, Wang Chen Yee, Di Di, Mrs. Wang and some other people lives in Hong Kong. Then i got to read(and have my own copy of) Tin Tin in Tibet, where my belief that Chang was a Hong Konger went stronger when it was mentioned Chang is from Hong Kong in the newspaper. There was no youtube back then so i came to believe Chang was a Hong Konger for a long, long time- from elementary to (probably) third year highschool.

Then the years passed by, the Italian Disney comics W.I.T.C.H came and suddenly, my love for Tin Tin went mute and almost forgotten. But there is one thing that Tin Tin strongly influenced my life back then. Being a European lover back then, I used to think that Hong Kong was just like Manila- a polluted and overpopulated city that there's nothing quite special about it. During the days i was a French culture lover(grade 4-5) turned Italian aspirant(grade 6) turned German girl(first year- second year), my only definition of Hong Kong is Chang Chong Chen.
I was fully aware back then that tito John is a Hong Konger and i have Chinese relatives there but for me, Chang was the only awesome person in Hong Kong back then.
Then my way of thinking about Hong Kong changed suddenly. I noticed the people there were like me and Hong Kong is much cleaner, safer and more modern than Manila. Then I came to know that Hong Kong is more than Chang Chong Chen.

Then, after watching again some Tin Tin episodes did i discover that the setting of the Blue Lotus was in Shanghai(the city in China) and Chang(and probably Wang Chen Yee) moved to Hong Kong during the time of Tin Tin in Tibet. But i still regard Chang as a Hong Konger, a very cool one. There are many other awesome Hong Kongers like Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Hawick Lau, Maggie Cheung Ho Yee, Stanley Ho, Donald Tsang, tito John, Shirley Wong, Lily Wong, Rocky Wong, Ah Pong Wong, Kelly Chen, Jade Chan and some others but i still think Chang's the most wicked among them all.