External monitor

I recently bought a 16" MBP 32G, which I would like to use with an external monitor when I'm at home.

I have an AOC 24" Widescreen monitor that I got in 2015, which I have for the past 3 years been using as an external monitor with my 2017 27" imac (16G), using a Belkin USB-c VGA adapter.

It occurred to me that I might be able to plug it into my mbp. Why, you might ask,? Because I have Parallels installed on it to run a specialty program I need for my work.

However, when I tried to plug & play using the VGA adapter, the screen goes blank on the mbp and the AOC monitor flashes once "No signal" and then stays blank.

I went through all Apple's troubleshooting steps, including restarting the MBP with the monitor plugged into it. Same issue. If I unplug the monitor, the Mbp works fine. When I plug it back into the imac, it works fine. I can't troubleshoot while the monitor is plugged into the mbp because, obviously, the screens stay blank.

Is it the adapter?

Is the monitor not compatible with the Mbp?

I am willing to get a new monitor, but only if I can't figure out a cheaper solution in a timely fashion.

Any feedback would be appreciated.