The World of Lily Wong

written by Larry Feign, Political Cartoonist

In 1986, Larry Feign created a cartoon character, Lily Wong, for the South China Morning Post, an English Language newspaper. The comic strip "The World of Lily Wong" depicts the truth of the author and mocks the authorities in London and China. However, in 1995, "The World of Lily Wong" was taken away because of its mocking of the Communist government in China. In an act of self-censorship, the editor chose to protect himself rather than the comic strip. Freedom of speech in Hong Kong is in question. In May 2000, Hong Kong iMail brought back "The World of Lily Wong". Recently, though, changes in the government's policy regarding their self-publishing of official notices on their own web site proved to be a crippling blow to iMail. It killed a lot of business for the newspaper, and on September 15, 2001, 80 out of 120 employees were fired. Then, a new editor was appointed,a local Chinese journalist. He declared to his remaining staff that Colonialism was dead at last, by replacing most all of the non-Chinese staff. Normally, people think of racism that is Anglo to Chinese, but not now. It is reversed and deep-rooted. Why do the Chinese call Foreigners "ghost"?

Larry Feign could not continue the story of Lily Wong and he wanted to keep her in peace. Fortunately, he released his right to Plan 9 Publications in the U.S.A and his books will be available in the middle of 2002.

Lily Wong