Sebastien Lai

And then there was once where they threw pig innards on him.

And then once the tear gas came, he'd sort of, you know, wipe his face and then go back up again and talk again.

Yeah, I was out on the streets, but I wasn't with dad.

Yeah, yeah.

I was protesting.

I mean, I was also hit with tear canisters as well.

And I still remember I was with my girlfriend, my wife at that time, and I just told her, like, look, just turn around and start walking.

And then you feel a prickle at the back of your neck and then you breathe in and, you know, all the tear gas.

So I still remember that.

I mean, you know, nothing compared to what dad was doing, which he was literally on the front lines.

I don't think it was something that he needed encouraging.

I think, you know, at that point we realized that we're fighting for these freedoms for our home and for our kids and their kids.

You felt like you were part of something that was bigger than yourself.

I think it was the brutality by some of the police officers and the crackdowns on a lot of the protests.

The phrase I'll use is kind of overzealousness.

There was a kind of a social contract that was broken between the people of Hong Kong and the police at that point.

This was new?

Yeah, this was new.

And then from there, obviously, the actual passing of the National Security Law.

And obviously, many people told dad to leave at that point because, I mean, everybody kind of knew that he was one of the main targets.