Chinese artist sings his daughter ‘Happy Birthday’ before being picked up by police

Hua Yong has been released on bail, reunited with his daughter

A Chinese painter who got himself into trouble with the authorities for documenting Beijing’s recent eviction campaign has been released on bail after being taken into custody over the weekend though not before he left behind a moving birthday message for his two-year-old daughter.

Last month, Beijing launched a city-wide crackdown on unsafe and illegal housing. Ostensibly aimed at removing buildings that had become fire hazards, these “safety checks” have caused tens of thousands of migrant workers to be kicked out of their homes into the streets in the cold of winter with nowhere to go.

One of those who has documented the devastation is Hua Yong (华涌), a painter who began uploading videos to YouTube and WeChat a few weeks ago. The videos show Hua with a selfie stick walking through neighborhoods on the outskirts of China’s capital city which have been abandoned and reduced to rubble.

These videos put Hua on the radar of Chinese authorities, causing him to cut off his dreadlocks, shave his beard, and flee to the city of Tianjin last week. On Friday night, he uploaded a series of videos onto Twitter from his friend’s apartment with police at the door, ordering him to open up.

One of the videos he addresses to his daughter. Worried that he won’t be there to celebrate her third birthday, Hua says that before going away with police, he will use his last minute to sing her “Happy Birthday.”

After singing, he tells his daughter: “Everything that Daddy did was so that your generation won’t have to go through what your Daddy’s and Grandpa’s generations had to. Daddy wants our country to be better; to be fair, free, democratic, and have freedom of speech,” Hua says.

“The Chinese people should stand up. I’m willing to be a martyr,” he continues, before urging his daughter to learn English with her mom.

While many were worried that this would be the last we would hear from Hua for a while, earlier today his friend, Li Huaping, announced on Twitter that Hua had been released on bail, sharing photos of him being reunited with his daughter in Chengdu for her birthday.

Li added that Hua had been arrested on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disrupt traffic.” William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International, warns that just because Hua is out of jail, that doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods.