BEIJING (The Straits Times/ANN): A mainland woman who sneaked into a wedding banquet in Hong Kong, pretended to be a friend of the newlyweds and posted a video of herself enjoying the feast, has sparked online outrage.
The woman, who goes by the name @kuailefeizhaidejiejie on social media, posted videos of her having a wedding feast in the city in mid-September.
In a video, she appears to be casual, enjoying wine and premium dishes such as abalone and roasted suckling pig while talking to other guests about her camera and exchanging her contact details.
The bride, known by her first name Angela, said the woman sat at a table shared by groups of friends who did not know each other previously. She thought the woman was a friend of theirs.
Angela only realised the next day that no one at the wedding knew the woman. She also did not give any gift money.
Guests at Chinese weddings in Hong Kong are expected to give red envelopes to the newlyweds as gifts. The customary amount for a wedding gift usually ranges from HK$800 to HK$1,000 (US$100 to US$130).
People flocked to the woman’s social media account to denounce her “shameless” behaviour. Some said she “lost the mainlanders’ faces”.
It appeared that the wedding was just another tourist spot for the woman from central China’s Henan province.
She continued to share videos of her trip in Hong Kong, saying she need not apologise because a friend took her to the wedding. However, she could not name the friend.
She later deleted the wedding videos to “avoid more disputes”, according to the mainland news outlet gznf.net.
Her account with 2,000 followers was then removed.
Some online observers speculated the woman wanted to attract traffic by posting controversial videos.
She had previously posted herself blow-drying her damp hair using hair dryers at shopping malls to test their quality, and breaking into a private yard in China’s southern island province of Hainan.
The woman has reportedly committed the crime of theft by “obtaining property by deception”, and could face imprisonment of up to 10 years, according to Hong Kong law.
In September, another KOL from the mainland posed as an officer of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) outside the agency’s headquarters in North Point, while displaying a fake staff warrant card with her name, photograph and “principal investigator” position on it.
The agency warned her against the behaviour after the KOL posted the photos online, saying that impersonating an ICAC officer is a criminal offence that faces a punishment of up to one year in prison and a HK$25,000 (US$3,200) fine.
The woman later removed the photos from her social media account. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST