Old Master Q - Politics and Issues in Old Master Q

Politics and Issues in Old Master Q

While Old Master Q comics primarily focuses on humor, 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 comic strips sometimes also bemoan the decline of ethical or moral values in modern day living. One can spot characters displaying acts of selfishness or misery, although the comics occasionally display good values like filial piety. The language barrier, mostly between the Chinese language and the English language, was not overlooked, either. This is seen in some comic strips showing difficulty in communication between old master Q and foreigners, especially Westerners.

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 criticized overly Westernized 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. However, the handover was later depicted in more a positive light in the years leading to the actual event, possibly representing a changing perspective from the author.