The World of Lily Wong
was a comic strip by Larry Feign, an American resident in Hong Kong. It ran in several Hong Kong newspapers from 1986 to 2001.
The title character is a Hong Kong woman married to an American expatriate. The comic focuses on Lily's daily family and professional life, among her live-at-home parents, her ne'er-do-well brother, her henpecked husband and her ethnically mixed baby daughter. The name of the comic is a parodic Shout-Out to the classic movie The World of Suzie Wong.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: A series of strips had The Lost Shopping Mall of Atlantis and 2001: A Space aieeyaadyssey
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: When Stuart's American parents come visiting, their behavior is so embarrassing that he puts on a disguise and pretends not to know them.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Lily is given one by a businessman after he hears she's related to a Communist Party official. "And so we're trying to get planning permission for this new industrial/office complex in Guilin ..."
- Captain Ersatz: Meet the Fongstones. As quoted,Rudy: [holding a video tape] Yet another Hong Kong rip-off of over hyped
successful foreign entertaiment product ... - Comic-Book Time: Subverted; Crystal ages in real time during the Time Skip, but the rest of the cast looks the same.
- Comically Missing the Point: One strip had Lily and Stuart's neighbours complain that because of Crystal's crying, they can't here themselves drilling.
- Courteous Canadian: Rudy tries to get guns from his white brother-in-law Stuart, citing that all Americans must have guns. When Stuart says he doesn't have any, Rudy laments that Stuart must actually be Canadian.
- Crossover: One story arc featured The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers coming over to Hong Kong after hearing how the city was founded on dope smuggling.
- Eagleland: Mixed Flavor of Beautiful and Boorish. On the Beautiful side, the country was portrayed to have wide open spaces and individual houses with gardens that Stuart missed while in urbanized Hong Kong. On the Boorish side, Americans are portrayed as ignorant to other cultures, paranoid, and rude (though the last part is questionable as the Hong Kong Chinese has manners that can be seen as "rude" for non-Hong Kong people as well).
- Elvis Lives: ... and is dictator of China! Deng later learns from party members that Qaddafi, Saddam and Slobodan Milosevic all claim to be Ricky Nelson, Marvin Gaye and Janis Joplin, respectively. Deng's response?Deng: Think of the jam session we'd have!Dictators: [Singing] We Rule the World ..., We Bomb the Children ...
- Education Mama: While in her doctor's waiting room, Lily meets an expecting mother who, even though her child is not even born yet, has already decreed he will be a banker.
- Green Aesop: Parodied in a strip that has Rudy with a horse racing pamphlet versus a man in a suit littering newspaper pages.
- Helicopter Parents: Lily's own parents don't hesitate to micromanage her personal life, which is all the easier since they live in the same flat.
- Insult to Rocks: In one series of strips, the story centers on the signs next to the elevator that says "No Dogs" and "No Filipinos," with all the maids, who happen to be Filipinas, being forced to, its heavily implied, go up dozens of floors up to their employers apartment. The arc ends with a number of Filipinos protesting the buildings racist policy, and the manager folds by taking down one of the signs. The protesters then begin to beat him and the concierge with their picket signs after they took down the wrong sign.Manager: Why are they so mad? We're not compring them to dogs anymore!
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Discussed and pointed out:Tokyo Ground Control: This is ground control ... For the 28th time, Hong Kong is not in Japan.Co-Pilot: Listen, you lyin' S.O.B.! Let me remind you who won the war!
- I Want Grandkids: An arc has Lily's dad begging for grandkids after playing mahjong with his friends. This is more in the lines of him Follow the Leader.
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: The main characters. Parodies some stereotypes. While Lily Wong is indeed married to a Westerner, she very much calls the shots in the relationship. Also referenced when Lily's husband shows up at the maternity:Stuart: My wife ... [pant] baby ... [pant] bring me to her ...Nurse: Not allow. You wait in here.Stuart: But I'm the father!Nurse: Sorry. Only hospital staff allow.Stuart: But but but — at least find out for me if it's born yet! And the sex! Ask the sex!Nurse: [to her colleagues] Some gweilo out there interested in sex.Other nurse: Aren't they all ...
- Multigenerational Household: Three generations in the same flat.
- Pop-Culture Isolation: In universe, during an arc in which both Lily and Stuart can't bear each other's music tastes, but it makes their love stronger.
- Product Placement: Lily and Rudy appeared in a couple of strips for Cathay Pacific.
- Reincarnation Romance:
- Parodied in a story arc that depicted Stuart's previous incarnation as a British sailor at the time of the foundation of Hong Kong, and Lily as a haughty local lady.
- Exaggerated; The Psychic tells both Stuart and Lily that they were lovers since the beginning of time.Cell!Stuart: Hoo-ee!, Looka that cute Hong Kong flu virus!Cell!Lily: Keep your flagella to yourself, microbe breath!
- Sexy Stewardess: Conversed by Stuart as he and Lily are picking airlines.
- Straw Feminist: G.I.R.L., the Gwaipo Infidelity Reduction League.
- Take Me to Your Leader: SubvertedXYXYZ: Take us to Lu.Lily: Lu Ping? but he's in Beijing! If you mean take you to our leader, that would be Patten. Unless you mean paramount leader Deng Xiaoping ...XYXYZ: Tsk! Ask these Earthlings for a toilet, and they make a major case out of it!
- Time Skip: Between its last printed newspaper strip and revival, 5 years pass, as shown in the first strip of the revival.
- Tsundere: At first, Lily's very cold and rude to Stuart, scorning his obvious devotion. Even after they're married, she's not above delivering the occasional zinger.
- Vacation Episode: The cast goes to Singapore and visits Stuart's parents in Los Angeles.
