Old Master Q
Old Master Q (老夫子; pinyin: Lǎo FūZǐ) is a popular Chinese comic strip originally published in 1962. It was created by Alfonso Wong. The series featured the cute, beloved characters of Old Master Q, Big Potato, Mr Chin, Mr Chiu and Miss Chan in a variety of hilarious situations.
The comic series was made into many Cantonese and Mandarin cartoon animations, including a feature film, Master Q 2001, which combined live actors and advanced CGI graphics. It starred popular Hong Kong stars such as Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung. The latest Old Master Q movie is called the Master Q: Incredible Pet Detective, released in December 2003.
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 for a wide variety of settings and ideas. More outlandish scenarios included close encounters with aliens, ghost sightings and the afterlife.
While Old Master Q comics primarily focus on humour, it also reflected changing social trends, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s. The comics would sometimes feature social problems in urban life, such as poverty, petty thefts and secret societies. It also poked fun at the arts, including fashion, contemporary art and rock music of the 60's. 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 more serious views regarding major social or political changes taking place in Hong Kong. It had previously criticise overly westernised Chinese, who were sometimes shown in the comic strips to slant more towards the interests of westerners than native locals. The agreement to hand over power of Hong Kong to China, following the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, would also become 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 went the distance to depict direct assault of what appeared to be a representation of the Chinese government, which usually takes place near the end of the comic strip.
A list of Old Master Q movies in chronological order:
- Old Master Q Black & White (1965.8.3)
- Old Master Q and Big Potato Black & White (1966.5.10)
- Old Master Q Triple Rescue of Foolish-Ming Black & White (1966.7.13)
- Old Master Q (1975.3.8)
- I am Old Master Q (1976.10.2)
- Old Master Q Strange and Interesting Adventures (1978.11.18)
- Colour Old Master Q Cartoon (1981.7.16)
- Old Master Q Water Tiger Cartoon (1982.7.10)
- San T Old Master Q Cartoon (1983.8.4)
- Old Master Q 2001 (2001.4.5)
- Master Q: Incredible Pet Detective Cartoon (2003.12.20)
External links
Categories: Comic strips | Hong Kong comics