A 15-year-old charged with property damage after vandalising the grave of Beyond’s late singer Wong Ka-kui has been denied bail.
The student was denied bail and detained at the Tuen Mun Children and Juvenile Home. Another defendant, a 23-year-old man, was released on HK$5,000 bail and the condition that he does not set foot into the graveyard, The Witness reported.
Police said they received a report from staff at the Tseung Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery at around 11.30 am Sunday that two men were suspected of damaging, graffitiing, and pouring liquid over a gravestone at the cemetery. Police arrived and arrested the two men.
In videos shared online, a man is seen cursing the late singer and pouring coke at his grave and the flowers placed around it.
He then destroys the flowers, eats some of them, and draws on Wong’s portrait. He then sings Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies – one of Beyond’s most iconic songs – and uses an iron hammer to destroy the late singer’s portrait on the gravestone.
Formed in 1983, rock band Beyond swiftly gained popularity in Hong Kong and abroad. The death of the band’s lead singer, Wong, while filming for a television show in Japan in 1993 shocked fans around the world. The band disbanded in 2005.
Some of Beyond’s songs like Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies and The Glorious Years became associated with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, with protesters singing them at demonstrations. Both songs reference freedom in their lyrics.
The videos of the grave being defaced sparked anger and sadness among Beyond’s fans and former members. Fans, including those from mainland China, went to the grave to pay respects to the late artist, local media outlets reported.
‘What will you gain from this?’
Wong Ka-keung, the brother of Wong Ka-kui and also a member of Beyond, condemned the vandalism in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“What kind of country is this, where morality has deteriorated to this extent? To come from far away to destroy someone else’s cemetery – what will you gain from this? Does harming others truly represent your values?” Wong Ka-Keung wrote in Chinese.
Yip Sai-wing, Beyond’s drummer, said on Weibo on Sunday that the two men behind the incident should be punished by the law. Paul Wong, the band’s lead guitarist, shared Yip’s post on Weibo, saying that it was sad that some people did things just to catch people’s attention.
According to local media outlets, the 15-year-old student is a YouTuber who posts videos of his controversial behaviour in public.
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