Wong Ka-kui grave. Photograph: Courtesy Jerome Taylor / AFP
Fans of the legendary Hong Kong rock band Beyond were left furious on Sunday, May 19, following the spread of an online video showing a man defacing the grave of Wong Ka-kui, the band’s lead vocalist. Two male suspects have since been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
In the video, a bald man in a white t-shirt is shown pouring soda onto Wong’s tombstone, licking the liquid off, kicking the headstone, vandalising it with black marker, and stomping on the flowers left by fans, all while insulting the singer with expletives. In another clip he also kissed Wong’s portrait on the headstone and smashed it with a hammer.
The staff at Junk Bay Chinese Permanent Cemetery called the police upon discovering the vandalised grave, which has since been covered up by a white tarp. The two suspects aged 15 and 23 were held for questioning on the same day. According to online sources, the 15-year-old in the video has been identified as a Youtuber known as ‘Bald Bob’, who has previously posted videos of himself doing controversial things such as licking toilet seats and drinking seawater. Last year, he filmed himself kissing a cardboard cutout of female singer Gigi Yim Ming-hay on the lips and crotch outside a fast food restaurant.
The members of Beyond have since expressed their outrage and grief at their deceased friend’s grave being desecrated. In particular, bandmate and Wong’s brother, Wong Ka-keung, took to social media to lament, “I don’t know how to condemn you except wonder at the circumstances that have created a sad, deplorable, pitiful, and hateful bastard like you.”
Beyond was a local rock band formed in 1983, and was largely considered the most influential band from Hong Kong, with prominent fanbases across Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, mainland China, and within overseas Chinese communities. In 1993, the lead singer Wong Ka-kui, aged only 31, accidentally fell off a stage when filming a live show in Tokyo and passed away within a week. To this day, the band’s most famous tracks Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies and Glorious Years are still some of the best-loved Cantonese songs.
