Old Master Q

Old Master Q (Chinese: 老夫子; Jyutping: lou5 fu1 zi2) is a popular Hong Kong manhua created by Alfonso Wong. The cartoon first appeared in the newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong on February 3, 1962, and later serialised in 1964.[2] The comic is still in publication today, and is the oldest Asian comic series in publication.


Old Master Q
Cover of Old Master Q vol. 44, art by Alfonso Wong
老夫子
(lou5 fu1 zi2)
GenreHumour, gag-a-day, pantomime, text comics, satirical comics [1]
AuthorAlfonso Wong
PublisherWangZ Inc.
DemographicVarious
Original run1962 – present

The comic is copyrighted by WangZ Inc, a company established by Joseph Wong Chak (Alfonso Wong's eldest son) in Taipei, Taiwan. Joseph Wong still continues to create new volumes.

Characters

The series' cast is led by Old Master Q, an elderly, lanky man dressed in a distinctive traditional Chinese attire. Supporting characters include Big Potato[3] (Old Master Q's identically-dressed contemporary with a stumpy, big-headed build), Mr. Chin ('ordinary Joe' character, good friends with Old Master Q and Potato), and Mr. Chao (main antagonist to Old Master Q, often pranking each other).

Format and themes

The overall theme of the comics centres around humour, with characters usually portrayed in a variety of social statuses, professions and time periods, ranging from beggars and office workers to actors and ancient warriors, which allows for a wide variety of scenarios to explore. More outlandish situations incorporate surrealism, close encounters with aliens, ghost sightings, and the afterlife. While each comic is typically produced as short strips of four, six or twelve panels, longer comics have been produced revolving around lengthier adventures of the main cast pitted again gangsters in modern Hong Kong or warriors in a wuxia setting.

While Old Master Q comics primarily focuses on humour, it also reflects changing social trends, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s. The comics would sometimes feature societal problems in urban life, such as poverty, petty thefts and secret societies. It also poked fun at fashion,[4] contemporary art[5] and rock music. The comic strips sometimes also bemoan the decline of ethical or moral values in modern-day living. Characters often display acts of selfishness or misery, although the comics occasionally display good values like filial piety. The language barrier between the Chinese language and the English language is also depicted in some comic strips, illustrated with Old Master Q's difficulty communicating with foreigners, especially Westerners.

The comics have, on some occasions, expressed complexity in the plots and serious views on major political changes taking place in Hong Kong during the 1960s-1980s. It had previously criticised overly Westernised Chinese, who were often shown in the comic strips kowtowing to Western interests over the local Chinese interests. The run-up to the handover of Hong Kong to China following the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 also became a point of interest, as a few comic strips were published through the late 1980s and early 1990s expressing the characters' fears of handover, frequently represented in a numeral of the year it would take place: 1997. Some of these comic strips also depict direct assault of representations of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China, occasionally in the form of caricatured depictions of Deng Xiaoping. The handover was later depicted in more a positive light in the years leading to the actual event, possibly representing a changing perspective from the author.

Films

The comic series was made into many Cantonese and Mandarin cartoon animations, one of which combined live actors and advanced CGI graphics.

The list of Old Master Q films is as follows, in chronological order:

English Name Chinese Name Release Date Type Casts
Old Master Q老夫子3 August 1965film
Old Master Q and Big Potato老夫子與大蕃薯19 May 1966filmSuet Nay (雪妮), Ko Lo-chuen (高魯泉),
Lydia Shum (沈殿霞)
How Master Cute Thrice Saved the Idiot Ming老夫子三救傻瓜明13 July 1966film
Old Master Q老夫子8 March 1975filmLeung Tin (梁天), Betty Ting, Roy Chiao, Sai Gwa-pau (西瓜刨), Law Lan, Lai Siu Fong
Mr. Funnybone我係老夫子2 October 1976filmLee Ching (李菁), Wang Sha (王沙)
Ngai Tung Gwa (矮冬瓜), Lau Luk-wah (劉陸華)
Mr. Funnybone Strikes Again老夫子奇趣錄18 November 1978
Colour Old Master Q七彩老夫子16 July 1980cartoon
Old Master Q Water Margin老夫子水虎傳10 July 1982cartoon
Old Master Q & "San-T"山T老夫子4 August 1983cartoon
Old Master Q 2001老夫子20015 April 2001filmNicholas Tse, Cecilia Cheung,
Alfonso Wong
Master Q: Incredible Pet Detective老夫子反斗偵探20 December 2003cartoonEric Tsang, Chapman To,
Andes Yue, Lee Ka-yee (利嘉兒),
Dexter Young (楊天經)
Old Master Q – Fantasy Zone Battle老夫子 – 魔界夢戰記2003TV series
Master Q老夫子2004TV series
The New Unbeatable Old Master Q: Shaolin Detective Agency無敵老夫子新傳：少林偵探社2005filmLaw Kar-ying, Karen Tong (湯寳如)
Old Master Q and his Little Water Margin Tale 老夫子之小水虎传奇2011filmDeng Chao, Zhang Hanyu, Elva Hsiao

Spin-off

A spin-off series called Q Master Q (Q夫子) shows young versions of the characters with similar clothing as their adult counterparts. Each of their names also are related to their counterparts:

Names
Old Master Q (老夫子) Q Master Q (Q夫子)
Old Master QQ Master Q, Young Master Q, Master Q
Big PotatoPotatohead
Mr. ChinChin


Dispute on plagiarism

Some cartoonists and readers claim that the idea of Old Master Q was actually created by Peng Di (朋弟) in the late 1930s and not Alfonso Wong, as some of whom were mostly professional Mainland cartoonists alleged that Peng Di's ideas were stolen by Alfonso Wong. They claimed that the cartoons first appeared in the newspapers and magazines in Beijing (Peking) and Tianjin (Tientsin). The character created by Peng Di was claimed to slightly resemble Old Master Q which is currently being copyrighted by OMQ ZMedia Ltd. The character by Peng Di wore similar clothing and had a little similarity in personality to that of Old Master Q. However, the formats, themes, and contents of the stories were different as Old Master Q was not heavy with dialogue making it easy for foreigners around the world to immerse themselves in the story.

A writer from Tianjin published a book in 2001 containing samples of work by Peng Di, which displayed the similarities between Peng Di and Alfonso Wong's works. The result of this dispute remains unclear as WangZ Inc. has denied all plagiarism accusations.[6][7][8]

References
  1. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wong_alphonso.htm
  2. Wong, Wendy Siuyi. [2002] (2001) Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua. Princeton Architectural Press, New York. ISBN 1-56898-269-0
  3. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wong_alphonso.htm
  4. "Old Master Q Comics #0226 – Helping". Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  5. "Old Master Q Comics | Strip #1252 – Species Differences". Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  6. https://www.hk01.com/%E8%97%9D%E6%96%87/63748/%E8%80%81%E5%A4%AB%E5%AD%90-%E7%94%9F%E7%88%B6-%E6%98%AF%E8%AA%B0-%E6%8A%84%E8%A5%B2%E7%96%91%E9%9B%B2%E5%86%8D%E6%8E%80%E7%88%AD%E8%AD%B0
  7. https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/1794774
  8. https://kknews.cc/comic/jva8mqp.html
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