MEDIA : Comic Stripped From Hong Kong Paper : Fans of ‘the Doonesbury of Asia’ fear that the pointed cartoon’s demise may have been politically motivated.

Larry Feign’s cartoon, “The World of Lily Wong,” often brought a smile or two over breakfast with its satire of daily life and politics in Hong Kong. But the cartoon has disappeared from the territory’s most prominent newspaper.

The South China Morning Post’s editor, David Armstrong, blames “budgetary reasons” for the decision late last week to drop the popular feature--and indeed the paper subsequently laid off 25 reporters and editors, even though its profit margin is a healthy 52%.

But critics fear that the strip’s termination was politically motivated and may mark the advent of self-censorship in the run-up to China’s takeover in 1997.

“I can’t believe the world’s most profitable newspaper has to fire a cartoonist to balance its budget,” said Feign, a 39-year-old American. “It doesn’t add up.”

More likely, he and supporters say, the strip--often sharply critical of China--offended the colony’s future landlords.

The announcement that the strip would be dropped came at the end of a week when senior Chinese officials were in Hong Kong to reassure residents that their economic and political freedoms will continue under Chinese rule. Hong Kong’s confidence in its future sovereigns is fragile, and some local journalists already practice self-censorship.

Feign’s strip, sometimes dubbed “the Doonesbury of Asia,” has never pulled its punches. Indeed, it has taken on issues that writers often skirt: the rush for second passports before 1997, tensions between local Hong Kongers and foreign residents and lingering colonial attitudes.

The strip’s theme during the officials’ visit dealt with alleged Chinese organ transplants from executed prisoners--a topic considered extremely sensitive in China. Some observers suggest that was the final straw for the paper’s owner, Robert Kuok.

Kuok, a Malaysian tycoon with billions of dollars invested in the mainland and close links to Beijing, bought the paper in 1993 from media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who admitted selling it to placate Beijing and protect his satellite TV interests in China.

Journalists at the Post said that Kuok had not interfered with coverage after he bought the paper and that, if anything, editorials became more liberal under his control. Editor Armstrong insists that he alone decided whom to cut, although Kuok recently warned that the Hong Kong press should avoid confrontation with Beijing.

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In a letter to the editor, pro-democracy legislator Martin Lee wrote: “I am afraid that discontinuing Larry Feign’s comic strip will be the thin end of a wedge. Cartoonists are journalists too, and Larry Feign’s cartoons have been some of the most incisive political commentary in Hong Kong.”

The heroine of the strip, raven-haired Lily Wong, and her goofy American husband, Stuart Farnsworth, live in a crowded apartment with Lily’s sour father and no-good brother, Rudy. Through her government job, Lily gets to meet Chinese leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and points out the ironies of Hong Kong-China politics.

The cartoon couple have some similarities to Feign and his Hong Kong-born wife, Cathy Tsang, but Feign insists the cartoon is not autobiographical.

Feign does hint that Lily is partly his alter ego, and that makes giving up the strip even harder. When the editor told him that cutting the cartoon was a money-saving measure, Feign offered to take a pay cut. Turned down, he said he would finish out the month for free, which the editor also refused.