ONE QUICK NOTE
When did Old Master Q begin?
In 1962, Alfonso Wong began creating Old Master Q in Hong Kong, using the name of his eldest son, Wong Chak, as his pen name.
CLASSIC · MISCHIEF · OLD FRIENDS
OLD MASTERQ老夫子
More than sixty years on, the cap and long gown are still unmistakable.Old Master Q still shows off, still slips up—and human nature, after all these years, hasn't changed that much.
That familiar silhouette travelled from the creases of newspaper pages into Modern Art Gallery. Alfonso Wong turned vanity, quick thinking and everyday mishaps into compact comic episodes; in Joseph Wong Chak’s hands, the characters moved onto larger canvases, where colour, space and rhythm opened up around them. Cities changed. The gestures remained familiar. Showing off, getting caught out, refusing to back down, quietly finding a way to save face—none of it feels especially dated.
Panels too small?
Step outside.
Step outside.
HA!
01 / WHY WE SMILE
Bad day? Old Master Q gets it.
Cities grow taller. People still trip over the same banana peels. New decade, same human comedy.
Old Master Q, Big Potato and Mr Chin—the old gang are far too busy surviving everyday nonsense to lecture anyone.
Try to look cool and take a fall. Get clever and end up cleaning your own mess. Refuse to admit defeat, then quietly search for a way to save face. It worked sixty years ago; it still feels familiar now. Streets change and signs are replaced, but vanity, jealousy, bravado and good intentions gone wrong keep turning up every day.
Seen up close in the gallery, the originals are wonderfully candid: changes in ink, erasures and corrections all remain on the paper. With Joseph Wong Chak, the image opens out. Architectural space, musical timing and Old Master Q’s signature gestures all move onto canvas. Reading one panel at a time becomes something else when you step back and take in the whole painting.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
How did one name link two generations?
The first “Wong Chak” was Alfonso Wong’s pen name. The second was Wong Chak himself—Joseph Wong Chak—who began continuing the series in 1995.
STILL FAMILIAR
Why does it still land today?
Showing off and failing, jealousy, stubbornness, friends teasing friends, good intentions going sideways—the situations have barely aged. Add a sharp turn and a dry punchline, and the period flavour becomes part of the charm.
LOOK CLOSER
What survives in an original drawing?
Print looks clean. Originals are less polite. Changes in ink, corrections, overdrawn lines and the marks of the paper remain visible. Each sheet records one particular act of drawing—there isn't another exactly like it.
02 / TWO GENERATIONS
One name, two generations—and still going.
First the father borrowed his son’s name as a pen name. Decades later, the son inherited the drawing table. Alfonso Wong made “Wong Chak” synonymous with Old Master Q; Joseph Wong Chak kept the name and opened the image in entirely new directions. For a comic built on timing, the handover has a timing of its own.
FIRST
GENERATION
GENERATION
FIRST GENERATION · ALFONSO WONG
Alfonso Wong
A few lines, an entire era.
Original drawings reveal what print smooths away: a line pressed harder here, a correction there, a passage redrawn and tried again. You can see how Wong catches an expression, or lands the exact angle of a stumble. The printed page is the finished joke; the original keeps the moment of making it.
Explore original drawings →NEXT
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
SECOND GENERATION · JOSEPH WONG CHAK
Joseph Wong Chak
Remove the panels, and Old Master Q starts to move.
Once Joseph Wong Chak removes the comic panels, Old Master Q is impossible to contain. Arms fold, legs kick, bodies pivot; suddenly the character has room to move. Wong’s architectural sense of space and his feel for musical rhythm enter the canvas as well. Plot can wait. A handful of signature gestures are enough to bring the old personality back.
Explore Joseph Wong Chak →The name came full circle. The drawing continued, and Old Master Q was nowhere near ready to leave the stage.
03 / BREAK THE FRAME
Take away the frame. Old Master Q won’t stay put.
Four- and six-panel comics rely on buildup and payoff. On canvas, Joseph Wong Chak strips away the before and after. What remains is gesture, silhouette, colour and rhythm—the character reads instantly, without waiting for a final panel.
Panel 01 · Narrative
Everyday life, turned into a gag.
Swagger, misunderstandings, bad luck—a few panels are enough. Then comes the turn, quick and clean.
Panel 02 · Breakout
The story steps back. The gesture remains.
In the Kung Fu Action series, the work itself steps out of the rectangle. A folded arm, a kick, a bend, a turn—the silhouette of the artwork follows the pose. Canvas is combined with wood cut to the figure’s outline, so the object is no longer a conventional rectangular painting; its physical edge becomes part of the movement. With no before or after, one gesture is enough.
The artwork leaves the rectangle; the edge follows the body.
Panel 03 · Composition
Colour takes over. The rhythm changes.
Silhouette meets colour, space and beat. No final panel required—stay with it for a moment and the fun shifts into the composition itself.
WOW!
Implication Series No.39｜弦外之音 No.39145 × 345 cm · Acrylic on canvas · 2023
No Problem No.15｜無問題 No.15Acrylic on canvas
Implication Series No.40｜弦外之音 No.40Acrylic on canvas
Keep flipping.
Different faces, different poses—slide sideways for works that haven't appeared above.
04 / INTERNATIONAL AUCTION CONTEXT
From the newspaper corner to the international auction room.
At Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Old Master Q is looked at differently: paper, date, signature and condition come under scrutiny. The familiar characters leave the printed page, and the original work itself takes centre stage.
Funny on the page, yes. At auction, the originals are read through another set of details.
In 2012, Alfonso Wong’s colour originals entered Christie’s Hong Kong’s Asian 20th Century Art sale. In 2014, Sotheby’s Hong Kong followed with a 123-lot dedicated sale, “Old Master Q: What The @#$% Is Going On?”. Paper, ink, signatures and dates—details once hidden behind the printed page—were suddenly laid out for close inspection.
In 2018, Old Master Q 2.0 placed the two generations side by side: early colour covers and four- and six-panel originals alongside Joseph Wong Chak’s acrylic paintings. Christie’s continued to offer works by Alfonso Wong in later sales; in 2025, Sotheby’s Maison returned Old Master Q to the wider history of Hong Kong manhua. Auction, exhibition, cultural history—the character keeps revealing a different side. Modern Art Gallery’s recent exhibitions follow the same thread, bringing original drawings, paintings and both generations into the same viewing space.
An original drawing,
where the joke begins,
and time leaves its evidence.THE ORIGINAL IS WHERE MEMORY BECOMES MATERIAL.
where the joke begins,
and time leaves its evidence.THE ORIGINAL IS WHERE MEMORY BECOMES MATERIAL.
2012 · HONG KONG
Strewing Flowers · Eating Durians · Raining
Three colour-on-paper originals from 1974, 1982 and 1983 were included in Christie’s Asian 20th Century Art (Day Sale), placing Old Master Q originals within an international twentieth-century art auction category.
View Christie’s lot record ↗2014 · HONG KONG
Old Master Q: What The @#$% Is Going On?
Sotheby’s Hong Kong organised a dedicated sale of 123 original works by Alfonso Wong. Seen together, the group made the breadth of Wong’s characters, drawing, subjects and period sensibility unusually clear.
123 lots · Sotheby’s Hong Kong
View the Sotheby’s sale ↗2018 · OLD MASTER Q 2.0
Two generations, side by side.
Early colour covers and four- and six-panel originals were shown alongside Joseph Wong Chak’s Implication paintings. The sale also included Old Master Q – Rock’n Roll (1964), described by Sotheby’s as the earliest surviving cover work then offered.
HK$650,000
Old Master Q – Rock’n Roll realised; Sotheby’s stated that it set an auction record for an Old Master Q original at the time.
View the Sotheby’s record ↗Old Master Q – Rock’n Roll realised; Sotheby’s stated that it set an auction record for an Old Master Q original at the time.
2021 · HONG KONG ONLINE
Rejuvenation｜妙手回春
Alfonso Wong’s colour-on-paper work Rejuvenation returned to Christie’s Hong Kong in an online Chinese paintings sale. Estimated at HK$20,000–40,000, it realised HK$150,000.
Estimate HK$20,000–40,000
HK$150,000 realised
View Christie’s result ↗HK$150,000 realised
2025 · HONG KONG MANHUA
Back into the history of Hong Kong manhua.
In Exploring Hong Kong Manhua: A Century of Comics and Visual Culture, Sotheby’s placed Old Master Q within a century of Hong Kong comics and visual culture, with related works presented in Our Bygone Days.
Read Sotheby’s Hong Kong manhua article ↗Records cited here are drawn from public auction information published by international art institutions and are included as historical reference for the works’ place in the contemporary art market. Sources: Sotheby’s, Christie’s.
05 / MODERN ART GALLERY ARCHIVE
An exhibition trail still unfolding.
From 2020 to 2025, Old Master Q kept changing rooms—and changing shape. Each stop left something different behind.
From Modern Art Gallery’s exhibition walls in Taichung to the international booths of Art Taipei, Old Master Q has moved through a surprising range of settings. Manuscript exhibitions brought viewers close to paper and ink; group shows placed two generations and different media in conversation; at art fairs, familiar figures took on a different scale and presence. Across 2020–2025, comic memory, original drawings and contemporary painting gradually formed one continuous thread. The archive is still open. What comes next is anyone’s guess.
HEH! HEH! HEH!
HA! HA! HA!From gallery walls to Art Taipei, Old Master Q keeps changing scenes. The laughter hasn’t stopped.
HA! HA! HA!From gallery walls to Art Taipei, Old Master Q keeps changing scenes. The laughter hasn’t stopped.
2020
2020.11.07 — 12.27 · Modern Art Gallery
Good Times Ahead! — Joseph Wong Solo Exhibition
王澤：好時光在眼前
Modern Art Gallery’s exhibition archive preserves this show as an early point in the gallery’s recent Old Master Q exhibition history.
2021
2021.03.20 — 05.02 · Modern Art Gallery
Good Times Ahead! by Joseph Wong
好時光在眼前－王澤個展
A familiar character entered a different stage, leaving the comic panels for freer colour and rhythm.
2021
2021.05.05 — 08.29 · Modern Art Gallery
Old Master Q Comics — Original Manuscripts
王澤之老夫子漫畫原稿特展
Back to the ink itself: line weight, revisions and panel rhythm came into view at close range.
2022
2022.10.29 — 12.04 · Modern Art Gallery
Good Times Ahead! II
好時光在眼前 II
Old Master Q continued to move from narrative character toward independent image, shown alongside Li-Jen Shih’s rhinoceros works.
2023
2023.04 — 05 · Modern Art Gallery
Dancing through Whimsy — Joseph Wong × Li-Jen Shih
舞動奇想－王澤 × 施力仁
Old Master Q met the rhinoceros: graphic rhythm and sculptural mass shared the same room.
2023
2023.10.20 — 10.23 · ART TAIPEI · Booth D8
Art Quintet — ART TAIPEI 2023
藝術五重奏－Art Taipei 2023
Joseph Wong appeared at Art Taipei with Li-Jen Shih, Sohn Paa, Songsak Chaituch and Jiang Miao.
2023
2023.12.09 — 2024.01.14 · Modern Art Gallery
Art Quintet: Transmission and Breakthrough of Boundaries
藝術五重奏：穿透邊界，打破框架
The release of Old Master Q from four- and six-panel structures became a key way to read Joseph Wong Chak’s contemporary paintings.
2024
2024.03.15 — 05.31 · HTC Gallery
Perspectives · Dialogue: Art Beyond Language
維度．對話
The works moved from the gallery into a corporate art setting, entering dialogue with sculpture, abstraction and spiritually inflected practices.
2024
2024.10.24 — 10.28 · ART TAIPEI · Booth E12
ART TAIPEI 2024 — Boundless Vision
Art Taipei 2024｜無界視野
Cover drawings, comic originals and acrylic paintings shared one booth, bringing paper memory and contemporary painting face to face.
2025
2025.10.24 — 10.27 · ART TAIPEI · Booth B22
Flow: A Space of Resonance for Tranquility and Strength
心流：在記憶與物質間的凝視
Old Master Q appeared as a figure so familiar that explanation was hardly needed: removed from plot, the character remained instantly recognisable through colour and memory.
06 / KEEP READING
The story isn't finished.
From first-generation originals and second-generation paintings to Modern Art Gallery’s exhibition archive and selected works—pick the thread that interests you and keep going.
Original Creator
Alfonso Wong
王家禧
Return to the original comic language, ink lines and drawings of the first generation.
Explore Alfonso Wong →
Second Generation
Joseph Wong Chak
王澤
Follow the character from comic originals into acrylic painting and contemporary art.
Explore Joseph Wong Chak →
Selected Works
No Problem · Implication
Kung Fu Action
Browse series, individual works, dimensions and shaped canvas-and-wood pieces.
View selected works →
Modern Art Gallery
Exhibition Archive
Continue through Modern Art Gallery’s exhibition history and related projects.
Open the archive →
Some jokes vanish as soon as they are told.
Some characters stay with us for a lifetime.
Old Master Q 老夫子 — More than sixty years on, an old friend is still here: ink on paper, colour on canvas, each carrying the character in a different way.
See the works again →TO BE CONTINUED…