The student who tied himself up with red rope is not getting away with his performance art excuse.
Last year, we reported to you has a 22-year-old student named Wong Wing-fung stripped down to his underwear during last year’s Hong Kong Pride parade. He then tied himself up with red rope and wrapped the rest of the rope to a pedestrian railing. Before that, Wong pretended to burn a Bible while parade participants and citizens walked around him on the crowded Hennessy Road in Wan Chai.
Wong was later arrested for public indecency, photos of which can be found here, and now he’s been fined for HK$900 (US$115) by the Eastern Court, according to the South China Morning Post.
According to Wong, his act was a show of artistic performance and protest. He sought to exemplify how Hong Kong’s limited LGBTQ rights were keeping him in the closet (by doing the act at a Pride parade). He also recorded himself in the act in order to produce a 30-minute documentary as part of a college assignment. As such, he argues that the stripping down and tying up were not indecent.
The Magistrate Pang Leung-ting, however, did not agree.
“It is unquestionable that a right-minded person would be of the opinion the act of the defendant was indecent”
Despite his protests to the public indecency charge, Wong was thankful to Pang for not pushing for a custodial sentence. As such, Wong eventually accepted the fine. “I think it’s fair,” he said through disappointment. That said, Wong’s representation, Civil Human Rights Front convener Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, has yet to decide on whether to appeal the fine.
