Although Alfonso Wong’s (王家禧) comic series Old Master Q (老夫子), a Chinese-language comic strip well-known in Chinese-speaking communities around the world, has since been passed to Wong’s son, Joseph Wong (王澤), the latter is confident that the comic strip will withstand the test of time.
First published as a four-panel series in 1960, the comic strip, known in Chinese as Lao Fu Zi, was very well-received in papers and magazines up until the 1990s, when Alfonso Wong began suffering from health problems.
It was at that time that Joseph Wong stepped up and gradually took over the publication of the comic strip and the management of its spinoffs.
Photo: Chien Jung-Fong, Taipei Times
Joseph Wong said that readers of the comic strip span multiple generations and do not seem to be confined to national boundaries, and he has seen second-generation or third-generation children of Chinese descent in the UK and the US who, despite being barely able to speak Chinese, are still drawn to the comic strip.
Children in Mexico and other South American nations also visit their local Chinese bookshops specifically to pick up the comic strip, Joseph Wong said, adding that he believes the comic strip has a sort of allure that inspires a child’s innate yearning to doodle.
“It’s a state of mind that is most natural and it seems to be preserved in people,” Joseph Wong said, adding that he believes that was the reason for the comic strip’s resounding success.
Like brands such as Louis Vuitton, or the indispensable spices in Indian cuisine, Old Master Q has become a classic over the years, Joseph Wong said.
Following auctions of Old Master Q items at Sotheby’s in both 2008 and last year, the production of toy figurines is planned later this year by Old Master Q ZMedia in conjunction with Japanese company Be@rbrick, as well as plans to make life-size models of Old Master Q and other characters.
Joseph Wong said he has wondered whether the comic strip would still be remembered if it had ceased when his father had become ill and he had not stepped up to succeed him, but it has has always been there and it is continuing to adapt to modern times.
Originally reflecting the culture of Hong Kong, the comic strip has moved on to incorporate Joseph Wong’s own experiences of Hong Kong and Taiwan over the past 20 years.
However, Joseph Wong said that he is not the deciding factor on the value that society places on the comic strip; that is up to the public.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS