Mat Yeung

In September 1998, Yeung signed a management contract with TVB after graduating from the company's 17th Artiste Training Class. He was given his first major role in the comedy-drama serial Screen Play (2000), where he portrayed Lui Ting, a character based on Nicholas Tse. Yeung was pushed by his company to compete in the male beauty pageant Mister World in 2000, and was misplaced. Yeung returned to Hong Kong and played a few more minor roles afterwards, before winning another major role in youth drama Aqua Heroes and mystery/adventure drama The 'W' Files, both which aired in 2003.

In 2005, his career was interrupted when Yeung was arrested for DUI and criminal damage.[1] He was sentenced to 150 hours of community service,[2] and became the first TVB actor having to retake acting classes again.[1] To make ends meet, Yeung opened a clothing retail store in Mong Kok, Hong Kong in 2006, but the store closed down within a year of business. He tried another business with selling Chinese mitten crab, but the business went bankrupt within three months.[1]

In 2011, Yeung's career was revived after a successful portrayal of Tin Hoi in the sitcom Be Home for Dinner. He was nominated for Most Improved Male Artiste at the 2011 TVB Anniversary Awards.

Yeung has a critical stance on the protest, as he has urged people to disassociate themselves from the violence and voice their support for police officers.[3][4] For his position on the protests, rioters have targeted him and vandalized his restaurant.[3][4] Conversely, he remarked that "Whether the business is good or not doesn't bother me, but I am very sad that rioters became more and more violent in streets and more common people got hurt."[3][4] Rather, he explained that "At this time, business is not that important anymore. Now it's the struggle for humanity that matters, we must return to humanity. I feel that in the past months, humanity is lost in Hong Kong."[3][4]

During the protests, Yeung was discovered insulting the protesters in a Whatsapp group with foul language, "All guys are fxxking crazy" (佢老味成班癲X咗).[5][6] Yeung was criticized by Flow Leung, another TVB artist, who claimed that two TVB staff left the group chat in anger and felt that Yeung went overboard when laughing at the two leaving the group chat.[7] Yeung claimed he has made no judgement on peaceful protesters and criticized Leung for quoting out of context.[8]

He has commented about the police that "I can see our selfless police officers work so hard to protect us. However, some people kept smearing them and cooking up fake news to mislead the public."[3][4] During the protests in November, Yeung was helping the police in clearing roadblocks established by the protesters.[9]

• Mat Yeung on Sina Weibo (in Chinese) (registration required)