Hong Kong’s rock star tutors: Meet the teachers earning more than the average British Premier League footballer

Sporting a trendy, gelled hairdo and dressed in a slick purple suit, superstar tutor Siu Yuen is being extra entertaining in the first 20 minutes of his lecture.

The 39-year-old Chinese-language guru is teaching three classes of about 100 students simultaneously in this early- evening session, with two classes watching his lecture projected live on a big, white screen from a small television.

At one point, he uses the term “small womb” to help his packed audience memorise word usage in ancient Chinese literature. It turns out that the three Chinese characters for “small womb” can also mean “your house is small” in classical Chinese. He also draws an emoji-like smiley face to help them memorise some classical Chinese grammar most likely to pop up in exams, and the students diligently copy the doodle in their notes.

At the end of 20 minutes, his tone becomes more serious.

“We made more jokes during class time just now,” said Siu, who has been tutoring students for 19 years. “Let me compensate you for the time, OK ?”

As he speaks, one of the public relations people at Modern Education walks into the classroom and taps on the Post reporter’s shoulder, indicating that it’s time to leave.

The Post was only allowed to sit for 20 minutes of Siu’s lecture and the “tutor king” did his best to show how lively and fun-filled his classes could be. But in Hong Kong’s competitive and no-nonsense shadow education industry, more joking means less time to teach students how to pass exams, so everything needs to be perfectly choreographed to reach the highest effectiveness.