Shiu Yeuk Yuen wiki

Stephen Shiu Yeuk Yuen (蕭若元, born 22 July 1949) is a Hong Kong media veteran, screenwriter, film producer, businessman and current-affairs commentator, and a history graduate of the University of Hong Kong. He began as a television news anchor, went on to run drama production at RTV, produced more than thirty Hong Kong films, built businesses in building materials, dot-com ventures and slimming, and from the 2010s moved into online radio and YouTube. In recent years he has become better known to a younger audience by the nickname "Lantern God" (燈神), coined after a long run of public predictions that turned out the opposite of what he forecast.

🌱 Early life and education

Shiu was born and raised in North Point on Hong Kong Island. His ancestral home is Longdu, Zhongshan, Guangdong. His father Shiu Pak-yin died in 1968 and his mother, née Yeung, in 2015; he was the only son among six siblings and the third child. In 1953 his family arranged for him to skip ahead into Primary One at Salesian School. He attended North Point Government Primary School and then St. Paul's College, where he studied arts and was a classmate of the future Secretary for Home Affairs, Tsang Tak-sing. In the 1966 Hong Kong School Certificate Examination he obtained three distinctions and four credits, with A grades in Chinese History, Chinese and English Literature, and entered the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong in 1968 on a government grant.

At HKU he received an A+ for a dissertation on social and political stability in Japan's Sengoku period, then left his master's programme without completing it. He later worked as an out-broker for Daiwa Securities and was nicknamed "Cai Zi" (the talented one) by colleagues for his quick mind.^[1]

📺 Television years: from newsreader to long-form drama

In the 1970s Shiu joined TVB as a host of game and entertainment programmes while also working as a newsreader. From 1974 he anchored the 7:30 news and the late news until 31 March 1976.

In April 1976 he moved to RTV (Rediffusion Television), initially presenting the morning news alongside an English-language colleague. Recognised by Huang Xizhao and Johnny Mak, he moved into drama and wrote around twenty long-running series, including Crocodile Tears, Floating Life, Six Plights, Reincarnated and Fatherland. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he and Mak effectively ran RTV's drama output, with Shiu as programme planning manager. Both left in July 1981 to move into film production.

🎬 Film career and To Be Number One

Through the 1980s Shiu worked mainly behind the camera. In 1987–88, at the invitation of Wong Yuk-long, he wrote scripts for Jademan's Drunken Fist and Oriental Heroes. According to the Hong Kong Movie Database, his film credits run from 1982 to 2012 and include 33 producer credits and 24 writer credits, among them the Long Arm of the Law series, The Truth, Royal Tramp, Flirting Scholar, Lord of East China Sea and, in 2011, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, co-produced with his son Shiu Ting-yat.

In 1991 he won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay for To Be Number One (《跛豪》), the most significant honour of his film career.^[3]

💼 Business: building materials, dot-com and slimming

Shiu's family ran a building-materials business; United Building Materials later listed in Hong Kong (stock code 432). In 1999 the company's earlier stake in a third-tier stock, Tricom, was chosen by Richard Li for a backdoor listing; the share price soared and United booked a profit of roughly HK$100 million on the sale. By 2000, United and its affiliate Yue Fai Marble had a combined market value of about HK$5.3 billion, with the stake held by Shiu and his sister Shiu Yeuk-chi worth around HK$1 billion on paper.

During the dot-com boom he spun off several vehicles — 577 Yue Fai Marble (later renamed Skynet), 8118 Cyber Daily and 432 United Building Materials — and co-edited Cyber Daily with Wong Yuk-man. After the bubble burst he transferred his stake, injected Paul Y. Construction into the shell and renamed it Paul Y. Engineering; the parent, United Building Materials, was caught up in the fallout and was eventually sold for HK$49 million to Loo Lin-shing, an associate of major creditor Cheng Yu-tung.^[1]

In 2003, during Hong Kong's slimming craze, Shiu and his sister bought Rainbow International and renamed it Varieties D Holdings to run a slimming business. In August 2010 he signed an agreement with Gallant China to sell the entire stake.

📡 Online radio: from HKReporter to Meme Hong Kong

In 2005 he founded the online forum Hong Kong Reporter (香港人網) and from 2007 hosted Siu Gu Sing Zhong, followed by Man Kun Kun and Wu Hoi Siu Yiu Luk; from 2010 to 2013 he hosted Fung Ya Siu Siu.

Hong Kong Reporter closed in March 2013. On 3 June 2013 Shiu and Lam Yu-yeung launched the online radio station Meme Hong Kong. The name was suggested by Lam and comes from the concept of the "meme" in The Selfish Gene — the transmission of ideas and behaviour. Meme gradually became Shiu's current-affairs channel, publishing on YouTube as "memehongkong" with programmes including Latest Siu Analysis, Retired Siu Analysis, Theory Siu Analysis, Study Chat and Siu's Newsroom.^[4]

🗳️ Political involvement

In August 2003 he became convenor of the "Democratic Anti-Tung Force", later renamed "Democratic Save Hong Kong Power", remaining convenor until Tung Chee-hwa resigned on health grounds in April 2005.

In May 2012 he said he would close Hong Kong Reporter if People Power failed to win three seats in that year's Legislative Council election. In June he told a free newspaper that democratic freedoms had been put on notice since Leung Chun-ying's election and that the council needed a strong opposition, and said he was actively considering running. In September he stood second on a People Power list with chairman Lau Ka-hung and Dr. Au Yeung Ying-kit in Hong Kong Island, and lost.

🔮 The "Lantern God" nickname

"Lantern God" is Hong Kong internet slang for an analyst whose predictions reliably turn out the opposite of reality. From the mid-2010s, as Shiu commented heavily on politics, economics and international affairs on his online channel, a run of forecasts that landed wide of the mark earned him the label; he is also known to viewers as "Siu Sang" or "Siu Shan". On 3 December 2019 he responded to the nickname directly, urging people to study reasoning and discussing what he called the different "levels" of being a lantern god.^[1][2]

Frequently cited examples include: the 2016 US presidential election, when he predicted a heavy Trump defeat and a Hillary Clinton win and offered 2-to-1 odds, only for Trump to win; the 2016 Brexit referendum, when he expected voters to reject leaving and 51.9% voted to leave; the 2016 Legislative Council by-election, when he forecast Leung Tin-kei would lose with about 3,000 votes and Leung took more than 60,000; the 2015 HKU vote on quitting the Hong Kong Federation of Students, which he said could not pass and which passed with 2,522 votes; his 2016 prediction that 100 Most might be suppressed and its online arm TVMost could fold, after which parent company Most Kwai Chung listed in 2018 with its public offer 6,288 times oversubscribed; and March 2020, when he argued that sparsely populated Western countries could not see a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak, shortly before Europe and the United States did exactly that.

His record is not uniformly wrong. He correctly called Carrie Lam's 2017 election as Chief Executive; in the 2019 District Council elections he forecast a turnout of 73–78% and 190–250 seats for the pro-democracy camp, and the actual figures were 71.2% and 389 seats; and in the 2020 Taiwan leadership election he predicted Tsai Ing-wen would win by at least two million votes with the DPP retaining a legislative majority, which is what happened.^[1]

🌏 Move to Taiwan

In November 2019 Shiu announced that, citing concerns for his personal safety, he and his wife would move to Taiwan in preparation for an investment visa, and the family relocated at the end of that year, settling in Banqiao, New Taipei City. In a later interview he described his situation as a form of exile and said he doubted he would return to Hong Kong. Around 2021 rumours circulated online that Taiwan had refused him permanent residence; he publicly denied them and called them fabrication.^[1][5]

👨‍👩‍👦 Family and personal life

Shiu has married twice and has one son and three daughters. In April 1974 he married Man Shuk-yee, a university classmate then working as an executive officer in the Hong Kong government; their son Shiu Ting-yat was born on 11 November 1974, followed by a daughter, Shiu Ting-yan, and the marriage ended three years later. In 1989 he married his second wife, Hau Lai-mei, with whom he has two daughters, Shiu Yiu-yiu and Shiu Sheung-sheung. He has also spoken publicly about past relationships with Pak Wan-king and Deanie Ip, and about dating the granddaughter of Wang Jingwei when he was young.

His elder son Shiu Ting-yat also works in film and entertainment; he was adjudicated bankrupt by the court on 23 April 2024.^[6]

📚 Selected books

His books include the Hong Kong's Fate series (2001 and 2012 editions), Winners and Losers, Looking Back from the Edge, Shiu Yeuk Yuen on Eighty Vanished Years of Modern China and Shiu Yeuk Yuen on the Aisin Gioro Emperors — most of them expansions of material first presented on his online programmes.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Why is Stephen Shiu called the "Lantern God"?
Because a long series of his public predictions turned out the opposite of what happened. Hong Kong netizens use the term playfully rather than as an insult.

Are his predictions always wrong?
No. His calls on the 2017 Chief Executive election, the 2019 District Council elections and the 2020 Taiwan leadership election were accurate; "Lantern God" is a general impression built on his misses.

What is his best-known film?
To Be Number One (1991), which he wrote and Johnny Mak produced, won him the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay.

Where is he now?
He moved to Taiwan at the end of 2019 and lives in New Taipei City, still commenting through his YouTube channel "memehongkong".

References

^[1] Wikipedia, "Shiu Yeuk Yuen" (biography, business, politics, "lantern god" incidents, personal life).
^[2] Hong Kong Internet Encyclopedia (evchk), "Shiu Yeuk Yuen" (nickname and chronology).
^[3] Hong Kong Movie Database (HKMDB), Shiu Yeuk Yuen filmography (33 producer and 24 writer credits).
^[4] Wikipedia, "Meme Hong Kong" (founding and naming).
^[5] HK01 and Epoch Times reports on his move to Taiwan.
^[6] Oriental Daily and Economic Digest reports on Shiu Ting-yat's bankruptcy.