You’re not a monk ... you’re a fake: how one Buddhist crusader is catching out Hong Kong’s street scammers
Mary Jean Reimer’s video posted on Facebook shows man explaining ‘this is how we do it on the mainland’
An actress-turned-lawyer who exposed bad Buddhists last year has struck again this week, confronting an allegedly fake monk and stopping him from soliciting donations on a street in Tai Po.
Mary Jean Reimer drew attention in October last year for publicising a scandal involving Sik Chi Ding, the abbess of Ting Wai Monastery in Tai Po, who allegedly pocketed millions in donations and was accused of two sham marriages with monks from mainland China for immigration purposes.
In a video on her Facebook page on Wednesday that garnered over 1,200 likes, Reimer confronted a Putonghua-speaking man dressed like a monk who was soliciting money outside Tai Po MTR station.
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The man, who claimed he hailed from the famous Shaolin Temple in Henan, presented Reimer a Buddhist identification booklet.
But the practising solicitor said the booklet only identified him as a Wu Jie Ju Shi – a home-based Buddhist believer who adheres to the Five Precepts – instead of a full-fledged monk.
“I am a Wu Jie Ju Shi myself,” said Reimer. “You’re not a monk. You’re a fake.”
Reimer said during the five-minute video the man had breached local law by trying to make money while in the city on a tourist visa.