Hong Kong prison authorities have for the first time produced short films based on the stories of current and former inmates convicted of offences related to the city’s anti-government protests to educate young people about not running afoul of the law.
Acting security chief Michael Cheuk Hau-yip told a seminar last week attended by more than 1,600 secondary school pupils from 29 schools that many young offenders who had broken the national security law had been misinformed, incited or acted under misguided heroism to challenge social order.
He pointed to the 30-minute film Momentary Glory, which will be released on the social media platforms of the Correctional Services Department and Education Bureau on National Security Education Day on April 15 along with another one, Unfailing Love.
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“This short film was adapted from a real case. The story described a youth who, under peer pressure and negativity in society, was blinded by illusory conceit. He offended against the national security law and ended up in prison,” Cheuk said.
Momentary Glory follows the story of Yiu Chi-man, a troubled young man who was forced to abandon his university studies to support his family.
Yiu is shown riding a motorcycle after answering two friends’ calls to “handle” an unnamed matter. In the film, one friend hands Yiu a folded black flag with part of the word “liberate” visible.
“I will make all of Hong Kong pay attention, and let them know what it means by ‘hard times create strong men’,” Yiu said to his friends before riding off.
The scene then cuts to a news report about a man in his twenties crashing past police lines on a motorbike displaying “seditious phrases”.
The friend who handed Yiu the flag then tells the other one that he “had nothing to do with what happened” and leaves the scene.
A voice-over said Yiu was found guilty of terrorism under the national security law, sentenced to nine years in jail and disqualified from driving for a decade.
The film did not say if it was referring to the case of Leon Tong Ying-kit, the first person convicted under the national security law in 2021 for terrorism and incitement to commit secession.
He was accused of riding his motorcycle into a group of police officers during a July 1 protest in 2020, while carrying a flag calling for the city’s “liberation”.
In the film, Yiu is portrayed as reluctant to engage with a prison officer until he is advised by two other inmates who have completed practical skills courses and scolded by his sister.
He later enrols in Ethics College, a full-time school for inmates to earn an applied education diploma in one year.
The film ends with a remorseful and changed Yiu sharing his journey at an Ethics College graduation ceremony, before being embraced by his sister, father and grandmother.
Tong had also shared a similar message last August at his college graduation, saying he was misled by “biased comments and false information” and pledged to make up for his “disrespectful act towards the country”.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Prison no bar to diploma as Hong Kong opens first full-time college for adult inmates
- First person convicted under Hong Kong national security law graduates from Ethics College
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