Alfonso Wong (王家禧), known for his Chinese-language comic books Old Master Q (老夫子), died in California on Sunday of multiple organ failure. He was 93.
OMQ ZMedia Ltd (老夫子哈媒體) founder Wong Chak (王澤), who is Wong’s son, announced his death in the US.
Alfonso Wong used the pen name Wong Chak to publish the Old Master Q comic books.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
“My life was like a comic book, so I tried to let Old Master Q, which is me, do funny things to entertain readers,” Alfonso Wong said.
Wong Chak, a retired architecture professor from Shih Chien University, continued his father’s comic book legacy by taking over his creative work in 1995.
He said that his father was a artist who was filled with vitality and imagination.
“The Old Master Q that he created is an illustration of everyday life and a wild imagination,” Wong Chak said in a statement published by OMQ ZMedia.
To distinguish between Wong and his son, readers often addressed Alfonso Wong as “Wong Chak Senior” or “Wong Chak the cartoonist.” Wong Chak was often called “Wong Chak Junior” or “Wong Chak the architect.”
Born in Tianjin, China, in 1925, Alfonso Wong relocated to Hong Kong in 1956. Prior to publishing Old Master Q, he used different pen names in newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong while working as an illustrator for a church publication.
OMQ ZMedia said the Old Master Q comic book series was loved by readers of different generations because each character is distinctive.
“Alfonso Wong drew inspiration from his years as a student studying Western art at Fu Jen Catholic University when it was still in Beijing. He was interested in swimming, diving, figure skating and hunting. Because of this he was able to portray these characteristics in his characters when they were playing sports or fishing or sculpting,” the company said.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Alfonso Wong’s comics took a critical, yet humorous view on the changes facing Hong Kong, including the transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997.
The company said that Alfonso Wong was ambidextrous because of his training as a drummer. When he moved to California, he developed an interest in fishing and pottery, the company said.
Despite the popularity of Old Master Q spanning five decades, critics in China have accused Alfonso Wong of plagiarizing the work of Chinese comic book artist Peng Ti (朋弟), who they said first created characters like Old Master Q and Big Sweet Potato (大番薯) in his comic books.
According to Chinese critics, Ti’s comic books were popular between 1937 and 1943.
He published his first comic titled Old White Potato in 1938.
However, the artist was forced to abandon drawing in the 1950s after being labeled a right-winger by the Chinese Communist Party.
Critics say that Alfonso Wong must have read Ti’s comic books and claimed the characters as his own.
While Alfonso Wong was extremely popular, critics said that Ti was poor and sick until he died alone.
OMQ ZMedia have denied all allegations questioning the originality of Alfonso Wong’s work.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS