Society

Cantopop star Keung To had his 27th birthday on April 30. Thousands of fans gathered in Causeway Bay to join the annual celebration.  The fan club organised various events, including a free tram ride day and a charity birthday celebration. Themed decorations and billboards across the district also drew supporters to celebrate and take photos. Follow the link below to watch the full reel: https://youtube.com/shorts/n_aeHlGeFFE?si=quVbZ6OhahRuSDLm  

The scene at Tsuen Wan Riviera Park on Feb. 18 was not what morning joggers expected.  13 shared bikes from Locobike, the city’s largest bike-sharing operator, were found soaking in sea water, lodged against the breakwaters. This is not an isolated incident. On Jan. 15, video footage went viral on Threads showing a cyclist deliberately throwing a Locobike into a river. “These are basically rubbish,” said Wong Wai‑tung, a Tai Po district councillor. "The way you leave bikes like this; I no longer see them as something valuable.”  Vandalism of shared bikes has been a recurring problem in Hong Kong since 2017, when the first shared-bike service, Gobee.bike, launched in the New Territories – the city’s largest region with the most extensive network of cycling tracks. Within four days of launch, four bikes were found dumped in the Shing Mun River. The operator shut down a year later, citing lack of profit. Shared bikes offer a greener transport mode for residents, but regulating shared bikes remains an uphill battle. Wong helps handle complaints regarding dumped and illegally parked shared bikes in Tai Po. “We sometimes receive reports from residents, especially at weekends, saying they’ve seen shared bikes in the river or left blocking pavements,” Wong said. “There are about two to three such complaints every month.” The problem is more severe in districts with larger cycling networks in the New Territories, such as Tuen Mun, Tseung Kwan O and Shatin, he added. There are now two active shared bike operators in Hong Kong — LocoBike, which has operated since 2017, and HelloRide, launched in 2025.  According to Echo Lu, a HelloRide spokesperson, more than 300 HelloRide bikes have been damaged in the past year, about 10% of its fleet. “The challenges in Hong Kong are more complex than in other …

Advocates and sexual offence survivors on Saturday urged the government to pursue broader legal reforms beyond current proposals at the Sexual Offense Reform Forum. This call came ahead of a government plan to launch at public consultation on the reform of the city’s sexual offense laws later in 2026. The forum examined whether proposed reforms adequately address the realities faced by sexual violence survivors. Jointly organised by the Hong Kong Women’s Coalition on Equal Opportunities and the Equality Rights Project at the HKU Faculty of Law, the event attracted around 200 participants from online and in person. Jessie, a representative of a sexual offence survivors’ advocacy group, called for stronger reforms to Hong Kong’s consent laws, outlining three key changes not included in the Law Reform Commission’s recommendations. Three changes include: silence or lack of resistance must not be interpreted as consent; if consent was never sought, the accused cannot rely on a claim of “honest but mistaken belief” in consent; and the law should provide a clear statutory definition of both consent and the absence of consent. “I went through sexual assault, reported it to the police, and attended court. In the end, the defendant was acquitted because of how the law is written,” Jessie said. She said the defence repeatedly questioned why she did not physically resist, asking why she did not hit, bite or kick the offender, call for help, or leave the scene. “The defence turned the victim’s trauma responses into a weapon,” she said. “This tactic of using trauma against the victim, questioning clothing, lack of resistance, or why the victim did not leave the scene, is very common in court.” Jessie was also asked to recall precise details of the assault, including the number of times penetration occurred, how long it lasted, and how …

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Asia, an international animal rights group, staged a protest outside HKTVmall’s parent company in Tseung Kwan O on Friday, demanding the firm halt all animal experiments linked to its life sciences project. According to Hong Kong Technology Venture Company’s 2025 annual report, the firm has  conducted 38 animal experiments since 2022 to keep organs – including heads and limbs – for extended periods after removal, aiming to develop new technology for long-term human organ preservation. The organisation called on HKTV to adopt non-animal testing alternatives and urged the public to boycott its product over what it described as animal cruelty. Four protestors who dressed in bloodstained clothes and wore pig and lamb masks stayed in a “pool of blood” outside the headquarters of HKTVmall for about an hour from noon. Jackie Tang, the campaigner and social media coordinator of PETA Asia said such visuals expose the “bloody reality” of animal testing. He said HKTV has been experimenting with “zero transparency,” as there is no way to oversee how the experiments were conducted, nor any indication that ethical alternatives were considered or how many animals were killed. “They claim that there is no cruelty involved, saying the animals are killed after being put into amnesia and decapitated, but they are still sentient beings, they feel terror and pain,” he said. Louis Ng Wai-mei, an advocate who represented Animal Rights Education by Non-profit Making Veterinary Services Society, said medical techniques and drugs used today were undeniably developed through animal testing. But she argued that scientific progress does not necessarily rely on animal testing. “Scientific and technological progress comes from challenging outdated practices and striving for better,” Ng said. She hopes that animal testing will eventually be abolished. HKTV has invested over HK$44.5 million in this …

When she was just 15, Fung, who does not want to reveal her full name for fear of negative consequences, found herself having her first sexual encounter. It was neither planned nor reckless. Years later, she said she did not regret it, but she wished she had known more about her body, consent and the emotions she felt that night. “I don’t feel bad about my decision, but if I had known more about this behaviour, I wouldn’t have felt so confused,” Fung said. Fung’s story is not unique. As access to social media, pornographic content and online conversations about sex continue to rise, the city’s Gen Z population is learning about intimacy at a younger age in a world that they say is more confusing than ever. But they say sex education in public schools has not caught up. Fewer young people are having sex, according to the latest survey by the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong in 2021. But among those who are, the average age has dropped to 14. In 1997, the Education Bureau published guidelines for schools on sex education, but left it up to the schools to design their own programmes. By following those guidelines, schools focused more on values and attitudes towards sexuality, while providing less information about practical knowledge, such as condom use and how to prevent HIV. Sex education in formal lessons often emphasises the physiological aspects, such as reproduction mechanics, which may overlook psychological and social topics, such as sexual consent and gender equality, according to a 2022 study by the Equal Opportunities Commission, a semi-governmental agency concerned with public social issues. “When condoms or the process of sexual intercourse were mentioned in class, the teacher just briefly glossed over them and moved on. I didn’t get any practical knowledge …