Hong Kong DSE documentary star guilty of shoplifting for the second time

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Tang Ngai-hong faced two charges within the last year, prompting the court to consider probation or community service

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Hong Kong DSE documentary star Tang Ngai-hong has pled guilty to a second theft offence, raising questions about rehabilitation and future consequences. Photo: Handout

A Hong Kong student who gained attention for starring in a popular web documentary about the city’s university entrance exams has been convicted of theft for the second time.

Tang Ngai-hong pleaded guilty to shoplifting at a supermarket. On Thursday, the Eastern Court recorded his guilty plea, admitting that he stole a bag of fruit and two packets of potato chips from the Fresh supermarket at Kornhill Plaza North in Quarry Bay on January 5.

The offence took place just five months after the 19-year-old was fined HK$3,000 for stealing nearly HK$700 worth of food items from the Kowloon Bay branch of Japanese discount chain store Don Don Donki on May 8 last year.

Acting Principal Magistrate David Cheung Chi-wai said a financial penalty was no longer appropriate given that Tang reoffended in a relatively short period of time.

But the magistrate also noted the defendant’s young age, timely plea and the relatively low value of the stolen goods.

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He adjourned sentencing until June 26, pending assessments on the defendant’s suitability for either probation or community service.

Tang, now a first-year student at the University of Hong Kong School of Professional and Continuing Education, was the main subject of a documentary web series about the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) examination by YouTube channel Trial and Error.

The channel, which has 561,000 subscribers, spent more than eight months in 2023 documenting Tang’s journey through the university entrance exam.

The 10-episode online series received overwhelmingly positive responses, with more than 1 million views on YouTube.

The episodes were later re-edited into a full-length documentary feature titled Once Upon a Time in HKDSE, released in cinemas in July last year. It has raked in more than HK$5 million at the box office.

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