Crime officer Little Tiger, who was caused multiply injuries by rioters with acid bombs on the National Day in 2019, has returned to the Force and resumed his instructorship in karate since March. Hon Sai-kit (Hon), a karate student of Little Tiger, has joined the Force recently and won the Shave Cup and Silver Whistle successfully.

Little Tiger started the karate class for the Yuen Long District Junior Police Call in 2013. Hon, a secondary school student at the time, was among the first batch of trainees. “Our instructor was strongly built and powerful. In addition to instructing on karate, he shared with us his experience in handling cases and cultivated in us positive values to prevent us getting astray,” Hon recalled.

Hon hoped to protect himself and others through learning karate. Limited by the venue, however, he could only arrange for one lesson per week. It was lucky that Little Tiger made use of his own time to provide training for the students to prepare for competitions. Little Tiger pointed out that the students chose to adapt to his shifts of work and practised in the park late at night. “I encourage students to ‘seek progress while others are resting’,” he said. “In spite of the undesirable time and venue, the harder the situation is, the more we have to overcome it.”

Given Little Tiger’s meticulous coaching, Hon won numerous awards in local competitions, and even the championship of a karate competition in Japan. When Little Tiger was injured in the attack, despite the enormous body pain, he still cared about the karate classes and asked Hon to do the training on his behalf. Hon, who was an undergraduate at the time, bore Little Tiger’s words in mind and took good care of the classes for him. Hon also made up his mind to join the Force after graduation. He hoped to come forward and safeguard Hong Kong’s law and order as Little Tiger had done, and promote positive values to young people. Little Tiger gave strong support for Hon to join the Force by assisting him in preparing for the physical fitness test and interview during his recuperation. Hon was eventually admitted to the Force in his first attempt.

The twenty-five-year-old Hon started the foundation training course for police constables in March and joined the passing-out parade on September 17. He said, “I was good at subjects that need to be recited, but my shooting was weak. Instructor Little Tiger once said, ‘Seek progress while others are resting’, so I went to the barracks at night to practise the details such as gun raising.” In the end, Hon was awarded the Shave Cup and Silver Whistle. He was very grateful to Little Tiger’s earnest teaching, which helped him make progress.

Because of his courageous performance, Little Tiger was awarded the Medal for Bravery (Silver) in 2020 and promoted to Sergeant last year. He will develop his future career along crime investigation while Hon, his favourite trainee, has also started his career in the Force. Even though their relationship has changed from instructor-trainee to fellow officers, they still keep the same goal, hoping to communicate more with the public through policing, restore the relationship between the Force and the public, and disseminate the message that we should abide by the law.