Old Master Q
Old Master Q () is a popular Chinese comic strip created by
Alfonso Wong/
Alphonso Wong (Chinese name: Wong Chak/王澤/王家禧). The cartoon first appeared in the newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong in 1962, and later published as comic books from 1964. The comic is still in publication today.
The series features the now well-known characters such as Old Master Q and Big Potato, as well as Mr Chin, Mr Chiu and Miss Chan, in many different hilarious situations.
The characters in Old Master Q comic strips are usually portrayed in a variety of social statuses, professions and time periods, ranging from beggars and office workers to actors and ancient warriors, allowing a wide variety of settings and ideas. More outlandish scenarios includes close encounters with aliens, ghost sightings and the
afterlife.
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,
contemporary art and
rock music. The language barrier, mostly between the
Chinese language and the
English language, was not overlooked, either.
In rare cases, Old Master Q comics would express serious views regarding major political changes taking place in
Hong Kong during the 60's-80's. It had previously criticised overly Westernised Chinese, who were sometimes shown in the comic strips to slant more towards the interests of Westerners than local Chinese. The agreement to hand over power of Hong Kong to
China, following the
Sino-British Joint Declaration of
1984, also became a subject matter, 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 had even gone the distance to depict direct assault of what appeared to be a representation of the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China, which usually takes place near the end of the comic strip.
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 movies is as follows, in chronological order:
#
Old Master Q Black & White (3 August 1965) #
Old Master Q and Big Potato Black & White (10 May 1966) -雪妮 (XueNi), 高魯泉 (GaoLuQuan),
沈殿霞 (ShenDianXia)#
Old Master Q Triple Rescue of Foolish-Ming Black & White (13 July 1966) #
Old Master Q (8 March 1975) - 梁天 (LiangTian),
丁珮 (DingPei), 喬宏 (QiaoHong), 西"刨 (XiGuaPao),
羅蘭 (LuoLan)#
Mr Funny-bone (2 October 1976) - 李菁 (LiQing), 王沙 (WangSha), 矮冬" (AiDongGua), 劉陸華 (LiuLuHua)#
Old Master Q Strange and Interesting Adventures (18 November 1978) #
Colour Old Master Q Cartoon (16 July 1981) #
Old Master Q Water Tiger Cartoon (10 July 1982) #
山T Old Master Q Cartoon (4 August 1983) #
Old Master Q 2001 (5 April 2001) -
謝霆' (
Nicholas Tse),
張柏之 (
Cecilia Cheung),
王家禧 (
Alphonso Wong)#
Master Q: Incredible Pet Detective Cartoon (20 December 2003) -
曾志偉 (ZengZhiWei), 杜汶澤 (DuWenZe), 余宜發 (YuYiFa), 利嘉' (LiJiaEr), 楊天" (YangTianJing)#
The New Unbeatable Old Master Q: Shaolin Detective Agency (2005) -
羅家英 （LuoJiaYing),
湯寳如 ((TangBaoRu))
Other actors/actresses: 紅薇 (HongWei),
陳寶珠(ChenBaoZhu),
薛家燕(XueJiaYan), 朱"高(ZhuYouGao), 芬妮 (FenNi)
Composers/singers:
黃霑 (HuangZhan),
顧家輝 (GuJiaFei),
張國榮 (
Leslie Cheung)
Old Master Q comics is now copyrighted by
WangZ Inc, a company established by Joseph Wong Chak (
Alfonso Wong's eldest son) in
Taipei,
Taiwan.
Some PRC cartoonists and readers claim that the idea of Old Master Q was actually created by
Peng Di (朋弟) in the late 1930's and not Alfonso Wong. They allege that the cartoons first appeared in the newspapers and magazines in
Peking and
Tientsin. The character created by Peng Di resembled Old Master Q which is currently being copyright by WangZ Inc. The character by Peng Di wore similar clothing and had a matching personality to Old Master Q.
A writer from Tientsin published a book in 2001 containing samples of work by Peng Di, which displayed the resemblance between Peng Di and Alfonso Wong's works.
The result of this dispute remains unclear as WangZ Inc. has denied all plagiarism accusations, while a small number of mostly PRC cartoonists and readers insist that Peng Di's ideas were stolen by Alfonso Wong.
*
Manhua*
Official Old Master Q site*
Official Chinese Old Master Q site*
Peng Di's character published in the 1930's (Chinese)zh-yue:老夫子
