Big Tiger and Christian by Fritz Mühlenweg

First published:Grosser-Tiger und Kompass-Berg, 1950 (English translation, 1952); illustrated

Type of work: Adventure tale

Themes: Travel, race and ethnicity, and friendship

Time of work: The spring of 1922

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Inner Mongolia, through the Gobi Desert, China

Principal Characters:

• Christian, the son of a European doctor
• Big Tiger, a twelve-year-old Chinese boy
• Good Fortune, a soldier for General Wu-Pei-Fu, who is a merchant
• Greencoat, an unscrupulous merchant, who is also known as Shong-Ma
• Moonlight, a Mongolian soldier for Dampignak
• Naidang, a Mongolian desert dweller
• Sevenstars, the daughter of Naidang
• Dampignak, the chief of the heroic Mongolian soldiers

The Story

Christian, a European boy born in Peking, and his Chinese friend, Big Tiger, the protagonists of Big Tiger and Christian, begin a day by skipping school to fly a kite and find themselves on a train in the midst of war. By holding the brake with all their might, they save a train for General Wu and are promoted from accidental prisoners of war to couriers for the general, who, in trying to get them home to Peking safely, sends them through the Gobi Desert in his personal car with an important letter to deliver to the marshal of China. En route, Good Fortune, the general’s driver, a Mongolian soldier and merchant, picks up Shong-Ma, who has disguised himself as a merchant, Greencoat, to avoid being caught by the Mongolian chief, Dampignak, whose family he robbed and murdered.

Christian, rarely caught without his compass and map, becomes a navigator, keeping the reader abreast of the journey and the location of such important things as wells and secret meeting places. Big Tiger often recites the wisdom of his grandfather; he is the moral barometer. Both take pride in learning the Mongolian customs. As the boys travel, the story unfolds of the wars, of secret treasures, and secret identities, and of how the red-beards, those mountain merchants and dwellers, rule inner China.

When the Loma Buddha, a Tibetan monk and supposed reincarnation of past buddhas, gives Big Tiger the snake ring, the Loma Buddha intends it to be seen by his friends, who know that it is a signal of his oncoming death. The ring is also a link to the five men who know of the hidden treasure. Of these, only three have survived, and only Naidang knows the exact location of the tragic, once besieged and now deserted city Khara-Khoto, and of its great treasures of gold, silver, and precious jewels hidden in a well.

As he planned from the outset, Greencoat steals the car to recover two other treasures: Dampignak’s inheritance and bars of silver belonging to the President of China, which he robbed from a caravan ten years earlier by causing the Falling Wall to crush the soldiers. Christian and Big Tiger join with Naidang and meet Naidang’s daughter, Sevenstars, a beautiful and intelligent young friend with a clever dog, who joins them. They visit Khara-Khoto and dig out the small treasure, ten bars of gold, which they divide, but Naidang chooses not to reveal the big treasure.

Having returned to Falling Wall, the scene of his crime, Greencoat loads the stolen silver bars into the car, hoping to get away. Big Tiger and Christian, however, learn of his intentions, recover Dampignak’s treasures, and notify Moonlight and his men, who surround Greencoat. Hiding in a cave, Greencoat and his cohorts try to set up a diversion to make their escape but instead accidentally kill themselves in an explosion.

The boys finally arrive in the Chinese capital, Thwa, where they deliver their belated letter. They learn that Dampignak, who was really working for General Wui-Hung-Wen to wipe out the robbers and ensure the safety of the merchants and travelers, has been killed and that General Wui-Hung-Wen would have become the new president had the letter reached him in time. Finally returning to their families, their adventures over, Big Tiger and Christian have been adopted by great leaders, ridden camels and wild horses, fought wolves, and outfoxed murderers. They have earned the right to be called Mongolians, and Christian has recorded it all in his diary.

Context

Fritz Muhlenweg, a German painter, writer, and explorer, based Big Tiger and Christian on his own experiences: He was part of an expedition in 1928-1932 to Inner Mongolia; he was kidnapped, escaped through the desert, and was saved by Mongolian cavalry. He tells the reader in the book’s preface that it is based on incidents related to him by the character Naidang. The story has some things in common with J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937): memorable characters, a special ring, secret treasures, and the theme of good versus evil. Big Tiger and Christian, however, is not fantasy. It is an ethnic, historical adventure story of post World War II. The novel is memorable for its depth, its detail, its unique characters, but especially for its factual cultural information about the daring Mongols, those “simple” but wise people of the plains.

Muhlenweg is innovative in his portrayal of Chinese women. Sevenstars is given atypical leadership and independence, and she speaks with intelligence. She is perhaps one of the generation who, it is intimated, may change the role of women in Oriental society. The fact that Muhlenweg places a European and an Oriental together as best friends in an Oriental culture—in a book largely for a European audience still recovering from a war in which Orientals were enemies—is also innovative, if not daring.