Old Master Q: Two Generations

Alfonso Wong (who adopted his eldest son's name, "Wong Chak," as a pseudonym), is the creator of the comic strip Old Master Q, which has been part of the lives of those born in the 50s and 60s. From the time he created Old Master Q in his 30s, he has yet to set down his pen, even at his present age of 85. And now, as the torch passes to his son Wong Chak, readers are waiting to see what surprises lie in store for the next generation.

Old Master Q is currently published in eight languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Malay, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. It has yet to enter the Japanese and South Korean markets, but unscrupulous businesses have already profited by issuing pirated editions.

In 2008, for the first time ever, Sotheby's Hong Kong sold works of Chinese cartoonists in its contemporary Chinese art auction. The first to be sold were by Alfonso Wong: a black-and-white 1960s manuscript and a set of four original color covers from the 1970s, fetching almost HK$470,000, three times the opening price. Not only was this a stroke of good fortune for Old Master Q on its 45th anniversary, but it was a great boost to the artistic stature of Chinese cartoonists.

He Who Strikes First Prevails

Wong Chak Jr. and ZMedia

So that Old Master Q can compete amid the manga/anime markets of the US and Japan, while at the same time building Old Master Q into a new brand, Alfonso Wong's eldest son and creative heir of the comic strip, Wong Chak (known as "Wong Chak Jr." or "the real Wong Chak" in mainland China), founded OMQ ZMedia Ltd. in Taiwan. It was the start of a new approach.

Says Wong Chak, the form and plot of Old Master Q won't be limited by time, space or cultural background in the future. He plans to develop a more modernistic design, issuing three different editions: Old Master Q Comics (a monthly Taiwan edition), Old Master Q Comics Collection Series (a biweekly Hong Kong edition) and Old Master Q Modern Edition (a mainland Chinese edition). He will also engage in promotions and merchandising, selling licenses for Old Master Q pictures, figurines, cartoons and websites designed for a global market. This will be instrumental in revamping the old brand.

A professor of architecture at Shih Chien University, Wong Chak doesn't deny that Old Master Q needs to catch up with the times. No less than ten Old Master Q movies and cartoon series have been made over the years. With Flash and PDF technology, there are Old Master Q e-books, and there's even a cell phone edition available in Malaysia and Hong Kong. These products will shorten the distance between Old Master Q and the reader, drawing a new generation into this evolving and spirited comic.

A Dark Night

Originator of mo lei tau

There's a definite correlation between the birth of Old Master Q and Hong Kong life at that time.

Wong Chak points out the major tide of immigration in Asia in the 1950s, with people flocking to Hong Kong to seek a living. Back then, the majority of Hong Kong's residents were low-class laborers and babies born after the war. Television was not very common, and even Cantonese films, the dominant form of entertainment, were priced beyond what the laborers could readily afford. In such circumstances, comic books, costing a few dimes each, became the most popular low-priced diversion.

Old Master Q was first published in Sing Tao Daily in 1961, and ran twice weekly. Alfonso Wong started drawing the strip because it came easily to him; he had no intention of making it into a career. But as fate would have it, this activity became an unintended success. The wit of Old Master Q amused the masses; some even credit the cartoon as the originator of Hong Kong-style mo lei tau ("silly talk") humor.

In 1964, Ng Hing Kee Book Store published the first compendium of this comic strip, selling all 6,000 copies in two days. Popular demand compelled the company to issue a second printing. When the second issue was released, all 12,000 copies sold out in a day. Ever since, Old Master Q has remained a hot-ticket item. This kept Wong from stopping; he decided instead to make a career as a full-time cartoonist.

At first, Old Master Q was chiefly a four-panel comic strip, with each set explaining a Chinese idiom. Later, the comic was expanded to six-, eight- and 12-panel versions to suit different tastes, with the six-panel version being the most popular. Characters besides Old Master Q himself include the lazy, gluttonous Big Potato, and the dashing, gallant Mr. Chin. The shenanigans of these three characters elicited guffaws aplenty.

Standing up for you

Alfonso Wong once said that he draws his comics as one writes a diary: the material is based on everyday occurrences and his own experiences. In daily life, it's not uncommon to see instances of schadenfreude-laughing when someone slips and falls, for instance-but "my comics are just the opposite," says Wong. Self-deprecatingly transforming himself into a clown, "I fall down so the readers will laugh."

For example, in the episode "A Needless Action," Old Master Q wakes up with a start in the wee hours to find a burglar in his house. He starts screaming and yelling, chasing the intruder, who flees... with the old man's valuables. Old Master Q slams the door and locks it with deadbolt after deadbolt. In another episode, "A Go-Getting Spirit," Old Master Q says "Time to go home!" the moment the clock strikes 5:00. Instantly, he gleefully leaps over the wall, sprints to another building, launches himself through a window, and lands on his bed, where he falls fast asleep.

With his crafty, impish personality, the cynical yet idealistic Old Master Q is not one to take bullying in stride; he must get back at those who do him wrong. In doing so, he subtly seeks revenge on behalf of all ordinary folk in similar predicaments, doing what they cannot or dare not do.

Wong Chak founded OMQ ZMedia Limited in Taiwan, where he has digitized vast numbers of the comics so that Old Master Q will be more easily accessible to the reader.

Change beyond expectations

For instance, in the comic titled "A Tooth for a Tooth," Old Master Q has just finished with a dental appointment. Angered at being overcharged, he screams to high heaven, feigning pain, alarming the people in the waiting room into thinking the dentist has botched an operation. They all flee, much to Old Master Q's delight.

Given Old Master Q's suitability for all ages, there are numerous movies featuring his character. The biggest hit of all was Master Q 2001, produced by renowned director Tsui Hark and starring teen idols Cecilia Cheung and Nicholas Tse, as well as 3D animated characters. Alfonso Wong was also invited by the director for a cameo in the film.

During an interview, Tsui said that he loved reading Old Master Q as a child. The comic strip gave him a "special feeling of joy" and an optimistic outlook.

In Tsui's view, Old Master Q's character is in constant change: sometimes wise, sometimes foolish, sometimes straightforward, sometimes devious, sometimes heroic, sometimes cowardly. The only constant is that Old Master Q has many opinions on any issue. He thinks his actions are smart, well-executed and methodical, but they always make things worse. Such a character can't be easily expressed through acting, so Tsui Hark opted to show him as a 3D animated character.

Alfonso Wong started drawing Old Master Q in his 30s, and now at age 85 he has yet to lay down his pen. As a consequence, Old Master Q has remained fresh, growing finer with age. Here he is shown drawing Big Potato at a fan convention.

Filling the Taiwan void

Old Master Q was introduced to Taiwan in 1970. At that time, a policy of strict government censorship had been in place in Taiwan for over two decades, and cartoonists accustomed to writing satire had lost their will to write due to the restrictions, turning to other professions. Old Master Q filled a void in Taiwan's comic industry, capturing Taiwanese readers. At first, Crown Bookstore published the unauthorized Old Master Q Magazine, and later released them as the Old Master Q Compendium. The comic swiftly became a fad.

Come 2000, Shang Yan Publishing was designated the official licensee, publishing the Old Master Q Compendium, which now sells around 20,000 copies per issue amid intense competition from the Japanese manga market, to the envy of other Taiwanese publishers.

Comic critic Hung Teh-lin notes that 1970 presented a window of opportunity in Taiwan's comic industry. Old Master Q arrived at the right time to fill a spiritual void in readers. Alfonso Wong was particularly adept at grasping the readers' changing moods and at exaggerating major events in his comics. His off-the-wall humor and depictions of people creating trouble for themselves started a new trend in the comics.

Old Master Q differs from the dream-like, violence-ridden aesthetic popular in American and Japanese comics, devoting a great deal of space to depicting Hong Kong's people and society. This pleasing, realistic portrayal is a noteworthy attribute: readers can better come to appreciate Hong Kong from Old Master Q, experiencing the diverse and admirable vitality of Hong Kong's social strata from its witty plots.

Hung Teh-lin believes that Alfonso Wong's Old Master Q is like Chic Young's Blondie, in that "its name is world famous. No other Chinese comic can make this claim."

Having gone from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia to the US, Old Master Q is now embarking upon the mainland Chinese market, with distribution starting four years ago. To better understand the market in mainland China, ZMedia authorized the Chinese company Modern Publishing to issue a 30-part series of Old Master Q. Current annual sales stand at four million copies. With such good results, Old Master Q is set to keep charging ahead, its business partners and outlets enjoying continuing growth in sales.

After Old Master Q entered mainland China, Wong Chak stirred up a dispute over plagiarism in Chinese cultural circles, given the similarities in name, style and character with early mainland Chinese cartoonist Peng Di's series Old Master Q. To be fair, despite the parallels between the two versions, when Peng Di was silenced during the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution, it was Wong Chak's Old Master Q that continued to delight readers, a contribution that cannot be erased.

Wong Chak founded OMQ ZMedia Limited in Taiwan, where he has digitized vast numbers of the comics so that Old Master Q will be more easily accessible to the reader.

An impish quality

Wong Chak, heir of the mission of carrying on Old Master Q, has already made a name for himself in architecture and art. He has partnered with the renowned architect Daniel Libeskind on many international projects and made numerous achievements. And Wong's paintings and sculptures have been exhibited multiple times at home and abroad, picking up positive reviews from the art community. His works grace various private collections around the world, and the Nara National Museum in Japan also maintains a collection.

Surprisingly, if we ask Alfonso Wong to review his son's work, he will say candidly, "I don't understand my son's abstract paintings." But it's not hard for keen-eyed readers to see that, in the comic, the character Old Master Q also paints abstract paintings.

Indeed, Old Master Q is a portrait of Alfonso Wong's rich and varied life. The material in his comics is inexhaustible, featuring vivid depictions of sports, musical instruments, fishing, pottery and so forth. This reflects his youth, when he was into sports, swimming, diving, skating and hunting while studying Western art at the Catholic University of Peking. And as a drummer in a band, he learned how to move his arms and legs independently, doing multiple things at once: like the comedic character Zhou Botong in Jin Yong's The Return of the Condor Heroes, Wong is able to simultaneously draw with one hand and write with the other, a rare talent for an artist.

In Wong Chak's view, his father is a genius with an impish quality. Many people wonder why Alfonso Wong chose his son's name as his pen name.

Says Wong Chak, "Early on, this question was difficult for me to answer. Now that I'm getting older, old images of my father at home, hunched over his work table, linger in my brain."

Old Master Q Water Tiger is a venerable Old Master Q work. It caused a sensation upon its release in 1965, and new editions have been released over the ensuing forty-plus years. Although it has lost the freshness that it had back then, older readers can recapture those exuberant feelings of yore by re-reading its pages.

Artistic genes

Alfonso Wong moved from Tianjin to Hong Kong in 1956, where he worked at a church illustrating Bibles and editing the church newsletter. Raising six sons, he had to find a way to earn extra income, so under the pen names Meng Ya and Zhu Li, he created the comic Mr. Chin (which sounds like "Mr. Stupid" in Cantonese), which was published by the Sing Tao Evening Post. Not long afterwards, he started drawing Old Master Q and Big Potato under the pseudonym Wong Chak. Originally he planned to do this only twice before quitting; he had no idea that it would become such a hit. He stuck to it and continues to this day.

In his essay "My Father, Alfonso Wong," Wong Chak writes, "I remember thinking as a child that my father was quite strict, completely different from the funny Old Master Q that he penned. A man of few words, my father wouldn't let us watch him as he worked. I think he was afraid we'd distract him."

After growing up, Wong Chak left Hong Kong to study architecture in the US, starting along the path to an artistic career. But his father didn't give him any words of encouragement; indeed, he didn't want Wong Chak or his brothers to become artists. However, "We six brothers inherited our father's genes, and now we're all in art-related work!"

Wearing a baseball cap, white sneakers and oodles of bling, this version of Old Master Q looks like quite the player, doesn't he? From the standpoint of today's Hong Kong students with their fast-paced lives, this evolved Old Master Q is quite appealing.

A brand new brand

Over a decade ago, when his father underwent cancer surgery, Wong Chak felt his father's concern about his life's work. He gave up his career in the US, and returned to Taiwan to organize the old works of Old Master Q and take care of any copyright issues, in hopes of breathing new life into the strip.

"Although the Old Master Q merchandise is very popular and profits are high, our focus is still in creative work. My father, two of my brothers and I are fully committed to creative work," says Wong Chak, hoping that Old Master Q will no longer be just a comic strip character, but a new brand of Chinese culture that resonates throughout the world.