Hong Kong actor Oscar Leung was a familiar face in TVB dramas.
Then in 2015, he made a mistake deemed unforgivable by pro-Hongkong independance supporters, and swiftly disappeared from TVB shows.
Recently, Oscar finally returned to TVB to shoot a variety show where he talked about what he went though.
At that time, Oscar, whose popularity skyrocketed after starring in hit 2014 TVB series Line Walker, shared on Weibo that he had attended a military event. He posted a picture of him giving a salute and wrote: “Long live the Motherland”.
While his post got him on the good side of Chinese netizens, pro-Hongkong democracy supporters were livid about what they saw.
As a result, Oscar lost all his jobs in Hongkong overnight.
Looking back at the incident, he admitted feeling really lost at that time.
“I didn’t shave or cut my hair. I stayed at home every day and didn’t want to accept this reality. I didn’t want to read any of those articles [about me]. There were really a few instances when I stood at the balcony and thought, since people don’t like me so much, they won’t have anything to say anymore if I jump down now,” he said.
Oscar eventually got over the incident and is now able to face it with an open mind.
“I can’t say I was put in “cold storage” [by TVB]. All I can say is the broadcaster is a commercial organisation, and when the media got involved, they blew everything up. At that time I also understood that there was no other way,” he said.
The actor also said that it was “really scary” when he didn’t get to star in any dramas for two years. All his endorsements were also rescinded.
He resorted to asking for jobs opportunities on Weibo just to make ends meet.
That was when netizens encouraged him to further his career in China, which he eventually did.
Oscar, who has two children — one seven and the other four — with wife Tina Lok, said that the work in China was what “helped to keep [his] entire family alive”.
He now has a thriving luxury watch business and a shared car dealership with Raymond Lam’s wife Carina Zhang in Shenzhen. Looking back, he said he has no regrets about what he wrote.
“I think whenever someone does something, there will be people who agree and disagree. It so happened that at that time people chose me as a target to attack,” he said.