At first glance, Friday Everyday seems like a scrappy little start-up. The Hong Kong-based media outfit dabbles in cheap videos, AI songs, clickbaity articles. On the website, links to its socials are broken. Slick it is not.
Launched in 2021, it describes itself as an “independent” outlet and “not financed by Beijing”. It says it eschews “politically divisive issues” and instead wants: “zen journalism”.
Yet, if you’ve stumbled on them, it was probably through social media of its Managing Editor, the Sri Lanka-born Nury Vittachi. Popular posts include: Tiananmen Square (“hoax”), the ‘Xinjiang genocide’ (“hoax”), and Iranian supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei (“cool”).
In a Facebook video this month, Vittachi took aim at the Hong Kong Journalists Association, saying: “For too long, Hong Kong’s civic sector has been dominated by people paid, often secretly… Leave politics to the politicians.”
That pricked up my ears. Because I knew who the outlet was owned by. And Nury was being just a tad hypocritical.
Settle in. This is a good one~
Culture guy, tax havens and birthday parties
The ‘About Me’ on Friday Everyday’s website is bullish, without giving anything away. “We are NOT financed by the CIA, MI6, George Soros, or Mr Putin!” it asserts.
It identifies the founders simply as “a group of friends from Hong Kong”.
In an interview with Jason Smith, for CGTN’s Bridge to China podcast, Vittachi enlightens a little further. “We have a great guy, Herman Hu who — he’s really a culture guy, he finances sports projects, orchestras and that sort of thing — he sort of underwrites us. If we want to do a conference of something, he makes sure it gets done. So we have him in the background.”
Nice chap. So who’s Hu?
Herman’s Chinese name is Hu Xiaoming, and he’s a little more than “a culture guy”.
For more than a decade, Hu was a deputy to China’s National People’s Congress, one of the 36 Hong Kong delegates allowed to vote in Beijing’s annual parliament — but that’s just the start.
He’s the son of Hu Fa-kuang, the businessman-turned ‘patriotic’ Hong Kong politician. “Professor Hu Xiaoming has inherited his father’s admirable spirit of dedicating himself to the motherland,” notes one article.
Hu doesn’t just run his father’s firm. He was groomed for politics and since the 90s has amassed an impressive list of titles across Hong Kong and Chinese society. Most pertinently, at the time Friday Culture was established, Hu was Vice President of the Shanghai Overseas Fellowship Association, an organisation formed and managed by the United Front, a.k.a. the CPC’s overseas influence unit.
According to SOFA’s website:
“The establishment and development of the Shanghai Overseas Friendship Association not only expanded the channels for overseas United Front work… [but also] promotes the great cause of national reunification, and to realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Through politics, Hu’s managed to hitch himself to a series of prominent figures. He was one of the first to nominate CY Leung as Hong Kong Chief Executive. Leung repaid the favour by making Hu chairman of the City University — a cronyistic move that attracted controversy at the time. Today, Yueng is a vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — a useful friend indeed.
According to documents filed with Hong Kong’s Company Registry, Friday Culture Ltd is a private firm, registered to the same floor and address as Hu’s Ryoden Development Ltd. Hu is the sole director, with his firm Ryoden listed as Friday’s ‘company secretary’.
For the financial year 2024-25, the last available accounts, Hu pumped in HK$2 million (US$255,000).
But it’s the next level up that things get interesting.
Friday Culture Ltd is wholly owned by Friday Culture Foundation Ltd, a tax-free registered charity that does much to hide who runs it. All three of its founder members are shell corporations based in the British Virgin Islands — two registered to the same P.O. Box.
But in June 2022, filings show a new director joined them. Also a Hong Kong Deputy to China’s NPC, and quite an infamous one: Witman Hung Wai-man.
It was his lavish birthday party, hosted at the height of the pandemic, that sparked a mini-political crisis in Hong Kong and international news.
Despite strict Covid rules, over 225 high-profile guests attended the event at a restaurant on January 3 2022, including Hong Kong’s Police Chief, the Immigration Minister, and Minister for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai — ironically the man responsible for leading the city’s pandemic fight.
In all, 170 people had to be quarantined, 13 officials were suspended, while Tsui resigned. Hung was later quietly dropped as an NPC deputy and from his prestigious mainland roles.
It brought an end to a rapid rise. After being nominated as one of Hong Kong’s “Outstanding Young People” in 2008, Hung was fast-tracked to a dizzying array of roles that always placed him adjunct to power: Hong Kong’s Central Policy Unit; the Election Committee; Police; a consultant for a Belt and Road think tank; and Chief Liaison Officer for the Shenzhen Qianhai Authority. He also had a sizeable role swaying votes for Carrie Lam’s leadership election.
Today Hung limps on, a regular commentator for China Daily and CGTN. Here he is recently arguing why Hong Kong shouldn’t have free elections. He regularly speaks at Friday Everyday’s live events — though articles never mention that he part-owns the firm.
There are even links to a third politician. While I didn’t see his name in company documents, one Chinese article states:
“To better tell China's story, Hong Kong deputies to the National People's Congress Hu Xiaoming and Chen Xiaofeng, along with Hong Wei-man… recently established the Friday Culture English online platform.”
Louis Chen Xiaofeng ran as a pro-Beijing candidate in Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” election in 2021 on a platform of “No Change”. Despite losing, he today is part of the region’s Election Committee, holds numerous public roles, and has become a Deputy in China’s NPC.
In 2017, he co-established “Dare to Speak”, a group advocating Hong Kong’s Basic Law and support for its controversial ‘Article 23’ [Pushing the state line: how daring!] Since Hong Kong’s pacification, the academic has turned his attention to Taiwan. Bonus titbit: his Facebook page was caught potentially buying views.
“Its main mission is to promote Chinese culture to the world and to voice opinions on important political issues.”
Given their offices, the men are candid in their fealty towards Beijing. “I will strive to do even better in fulfilling the ‘four musts’ and ‘four hopes’ put forward by President Xi Jinping,” Hu dutifully pledges in one article.
Hu is also explicit in tying Friday Culture to wider Party goals. Under a picture of him holding a work report, standing in front of Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Hu states:
“The mission of Friday Culture is what the 20th CPC National Congress report calls “telling China’s story well, spreading China’s voice effectively, and showcasing a credible, lovable, and respectable image of China.”
Specifically, Hu explains Friday Everyday’s aims as “voicing opinions on important political issues …. [like] refuting the unfounded and false reports about Xinjiang by Western media.”
How very zen.
“Spread China’s voice effectively”
The timing of Friday Culture’s creation can’t be ignored. Since the 2019 protests, great effort has gone into political realignment within Hong Kong.
Since December 2020, the Hong Kong government has spent HK$18 billion (US$2.3 billion) on a ‘Special Fund’ to support ‘national security’ — all spending is confidential. While HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) of the region’s Social Welfare budget has been spent on NGO staff being sent on patriotic education exchanges to the mainland. ‘Democratic’ groups have been rendered illegal, while funds have been diverted to pro-Beijing organisations.
Today, Hong Kong’s civic organisations are ‘encouraged’ to demonstrate patriotic activity. Behind the scenes, Friday Culture has tapped into that.
Since its establishment, Friday Culture has collaborated with a series of United Front and Party-backed organisations, Chinese CPC figures, and Hong Kong politicians to run public conferences propagating pro-Beijing themes; or behind-closed-doors training programmes, centred around how to communicate narratives better — particularly with overseas audiences.
Such as November 2022, when it worked with management of the Hong Kong United Youth Association (HKUYA) — essentially a local branch of China’s All-China Youth Federation, an outfit run by the CPC’s United Front.
Together, “they prepared and shared insights on Chief Executive John Lee’s emphasis on connecting with the motherland.” An article gives more details:
“In response to President Xi Jinping’s call to “tell China’s story well and spread China’s voice effectively to the world,” the Hong Kong United Youth Association jointly organized the “HKUYA - International Communication Training Course” with Friday Culture Ltd. last Friday November 25. The course aimed to encourage members to tell China’s story effectively on international platforms, improve their professional English writing skills, and confidently express themselves in media writing and commentary.”
On Facebook, the company paid to run two adverts promoting interviews with establishment figures, each defending Hong Kong’s Basic Law — both were blocked for failing Meta’s terms on political disclosure.
‘Let’s inspire Hong Kong’
In Feb 2022, the group launched “Friday Beyond Spotlights“ on Hong Kong Cable TV — a show so bad, it has to be seen to be believed. It ran for three series.
“Let’s inspire Hong Kong for a better society!” says host Yvette Kong in its introduction.
The credits list ten sponsors, mostly a series of pro-Beijing organisations like: the Consultative Committee on Guangdong-Hong Kong Co-operation, or the Federation of Hong Kong Guangdong Community Organisations.
First guest is — surprise — Hu’s old friend, CY Leung. Any hopes of objectivity are dispelled by the first question, which opens: “As one of the leaders of Hong Kong, you have always contributed to the success of the city…”
“From humble beginnings to where he is today. Quite a journey,” toadies Vittachi.
As I watch Nury kowtow to his boss’s friend, one question rattles around my mind: What happened to him?
Nury Vittachi
Those with long memories might remember a very different Vittachi, the man who runs Friday Everyday. For new people: hello, pull up a chair. This next section is going to be a whirlwind.
Similar to Hu, Vittachi was also inspired by his father.
Tarzie Vittachi was one of Asia’s most respected journalists. As editor of the Ceylon Times, his committed reporting of the anti-Tamil pogrom irritated the Sri Lanka Government so much the family were forced to flee. He later worked for Newsweek, the BBC, Economist and Times and UNICEF. His 1959 book on Sri Lanka’s race riots is seen as definitive — still referenced to this day.
“We had to escape from Sri Lanka one dark night because of something my father wrote in a newspaper. That experience shaped my life, and I decided to become a writer too,” Vittachi vividly explains.
His father’s links got Nury a job at the British tabloid: The News of the World. He still writes in its style today: short words, titles that RANDOMLY SHOUT mid-article. In 1987, when its owner, the Murdoch-owned News Corp, bought the South China Morning Post, Vittachi moved across to Hong Kong.
He soon established himself by writing Lai See — ostensibly a Hong Kong business gossip column, but one that Vittachi used mostly to poke fun at Chinese politicians.
Take July 2 1997, the day of Hong Kong’s Handover back to China. Vittachi made sure to use work in the phrase “Tiananmen Square Massacre” in that day’s column. Start as you mean to go on,” he told a colleague.
The gig was lucrative. By the end, Vittachi says he was paid HK$ 90,000 per month (US$160,000 per year).
On the side, he wrote a series of books for the paper — some have not dated well.
But increasing political pressure from China following the Handover led to Nury to be managed out. He detailed the acrimonious departure in his 2001 book North Wind. Today, it is out of print, near-impossible to buy — but I managed to track down a copy.
Given his recent turn, you can see why he’d rather it be forgotten.
Partly that’s his views — China’s NPC is referred to as: “the sham legislature across the border”. He calls officials “useless”, etc. But perhaps because it muddies his personal story. At the time, Vittachi sold the book and himself as a fearless satirist. But inside are copious examples of him watering down jokes, or agreeing to outright censorship.
“I was instructed to stop writing about the English language state newspaper of China. The Chief Executive said I should consider it “sensitive”… My references about China Daily stopped abruptly.”
The early signs of being a mercenary are there. He admits to being a coward. Most of the book revolves around his fight for his job.
“I WILL NOT bring this historic newspaper or my profession into disrepute by agreeing to write occasional, pre-selected, carefully censored, “safe” pieces which diminish me, and mislead the public into thinking that I have been silenced against my will.
I WILL NOT bring this historic newspaper or my profession into disrepute by accepting any role that requires me to operate counter to the highest journalistic ethics; In particular; I will not agree to treat the provisional legislature, the Chief Executive, or any mainland Chinese institution such as the China Daily in a manner which is any way different from the way I treat the Legislative Council, the previous administrations or other institutions.”
Nury Vittachi to SCMP Chief Executive, 3 Nov 1997
And what happens? After several months unemployed, Vittachi asks the Editor if he can return to SCMP. He agrees to tighter censorship — for less than half his previous salary.
Most people sell out their principles at a premium. Few sell for less.
From critic to convert
The SCMP would be his career highpoint. He’d soon leave for good, mostly for lesser titles. However, he did write three times for the NYT, like this one complaining about Beijing’s censorship, or this one glorifying Hong Kong’s 2014 protests.
In the 2000’s Vittachi reinvented himself as a children’s author. His Feng Shui Detective series sold well, but not gainfully. “Books cost very little. Ten per cent of very little is very, very little,” he later lamented.
He stayed an active member of the Democratic movement. He’d take his family to protests; he donated to campaigns; he even wrote songs for his daughters, filmed them singing words like: “It’s true we have no democracy, One day we’ll choose leaders, But we can say anything we like, Our free speech has freed us.”
Ironically, he’s since deleted it from Facebook.
In 2007, he’s quoted in the NYT, saying: “How can the Communist Party expect to be able to stop the democratic tide? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if they don’t learn to ride with that tide, they will find that they will be crushed by it before long.”
Skip to 2021, and it’s Hong Kong’s first ever ‘Patriots only’ election. Vittachi is hosting a video for China Daily; his role at Friday Everyday presents him as a supposed ‘independent voice’.
“Crowds of people,” he enthuses (Turnout was a record low). “They’re all coming out to vote… from one side, from the other” (Only pro-Beijing candidates were allowed). “The international media is portraying it as sort of fake elections, but it isn’t really—” he says, voice breaking.
Another reversal is Tiananmen. In 2014, he wrote for Asia Sentinel:
The “Tiananmen Square massacre” became “the incident”. In some references, “incident” was further diluted to “accident”. It was as if Chinese leaders had said, “Oops, ran over the protestors with tanks, silly us.”
Compare that to today. Since forming Friday Everyday, each June, Vittachi puts out content “correcting the facts about Tiananmen”. Last year’s entry, titled: “one of the biggest hoaxes in modern history” was reprinted in full by Pravda, Russia’s state newspaper.
By the time the protests hit in 2019, Vittachi’s career was getting quiet. Like many, it was a turning point.
A man like him had two choices. Continue his decades of free speech advocacy, links to democracy groups — but know that meant elbowing his way past other, newer, more credible voices. Plus, if the protests were quashed — likely — he’d have to face the consequences, perhaps leave Hong Kong.
The other would be to back the establishment, hope they’d win out. Few foreigners did — he’d be a standout voice, and the likely recipient of state-funded opportunities. His long-term safety would be assured.
Today, Vittachi explains his political reversal as: “slowly, slowly, [I] just woke up.”
That it tallied with a career downturn, and led to patronage by a Chinese politician paying him to have his new views is probably all coincidental.
Conclusion
I’m about to publish, and a podcast has popped up. It has seven views. Unusually, it’s not soft — the hosts are pushing back on Vittachi’s statements. Each time, when cornered, confronted with potentially criticising the Chinese state, he pivots to “Butwhatabout America..” or “whatabout…”
By the third time, the hosts point it out. By the fifth, they begin to laugh.
I’m not laughing. Instead, I’m thinking about where Vittachi’s come from, who he is now. I remember the dedication in North Winds.
His father obviously cast a long shadow, and it’s not hard to see why. His obituary in the Independent reads:
“Vittachi knew of the dangers that went with fearless journalism especially in the Third World and he knew of them at first hand. As a result he fought privately and publicly for fellow journalists around the world who were gagged, intimidated or imprisoned.”
That’s him. While today, his son is paid to run narrative defence for the world’s largest authoritarian state.
In the podcast, I hear him gloat over Jimmy Lai’s incarceration, before claiming: “Hong Kong didn’t have a free press, it has free press now, thank God.”
I wonder what his father would say~
Superbly researched and written as always.
Just so good, Sean. Echoing Austin, wonderfully researched, wonderfully written. I had indeed been wondering about Nury’s turn. He was someone I used to consider a friend, but his current worldview, shared with the earnestness of a convert, is downright scary. Especially sad given his legacy as Tarzie's son--my Ceylon Tamil uncles spoke of him (Tarzie, that is) with such admiration (though Nury had a complicated relationship with him, but that’s neither here nor there.) Thank you!