Wong is confronted by YouTuber “Lau Ma Che” as other passengers look on. A video showing a teenage YouTuber confronting Scholarism leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung in a busy MTR train compartment – and then be greeted by curses and swears from other passengers – has gone viral.
The five-minute clip was filmed by 19-year-old Lau Chun-hin, known online – where his videos typically attract several thousand views – by his nickname “Lau Ma Che”.
The clip begins with Lau slipping through a crowd of passengers in a packed MTR compartment to reach Wong after apparently spotting him by chance.
Lau demands the student leader explain how he feels about last year’s Occupy Central protests, saying Wong did not respect Hongkongers.
When Wong asks Lau to stop filming, saying he was causing a disturbance to other passengers, Lau continues: “Oh, now you are afraid of obstructing others. So when you occupied Mong Kok and Central – at that time you were not obstructing others?”
“If you think you were disturbing others at that time, why did you do things to hurt others? Where was your advantage?” Lau questions the 18-year-old student activist.
Wong keeps nodding his head but remains silent. Lau then says, “I have wanted to speak for Hongkongers for a long time. I don’t care how high your moral values are. I feel that when you hurt others, affect others, then you are wrong.”
An angry male passenger joins the conversation at this point, telling Lau: “So how about you now? You are now filming us. Which station do you want to get off?”
“You are disturbing me. Can you be quiet?” the man says.
Another male passenger complains that Lau is obstructing him: “You're taking all the space here. What are you doing here? All of us have to give way to you.”
As the first man gets off the train, a third man approaches to confront Lau with swear words. “Are you taking a picture of me? If my photo is put onto the internet I will hunt you down,” he warns.
Lau’s film has been viewed almost 160,000 times on YouTube since being uploaded yesterday. While it has earned fewer than 1,000 “likes”, more than 5,000 users have given him the thumbs down.
Some YouTube users described Lau’s video as a “stupid” and “pointless” work in which he only wanted attention. They also said Lau had breached MTR by-laws by causing a nuisance to other passengers.
“Such a moron. The questions asked are all stupid,” said user Cheuk Yinh Yeung. “Stupid Lau Ma Che. I used to support you ... But this time you are just too stupid,” another called Lun Xo said.
Lau was ordered by a court to attend a reform centre in 2013 after he admitted making an online video in which he threatened a probation officer. This took place while he was serving a probation term for making another video in which he intimidated a girl.
Lau told the court at the time he wanted to develop a career in the entertainment industry.