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Kylie Knott

Hong Kong-based Canadian author Sylvia Yu heard many heart-wrenching stories while researching sex trafficking in Asia.
The story of Mei – just 14 when she was trafficked as a bride – hit extra hard.
Bought by an elderly farmer in China, Mei spent years chained up like a dog. By the time she found support in a shelter she had been starved, used as a sex slave, contracted HIV and battled drug addiction and suicidal thoughts.
Mei’s story is one of many Yu recounts in her new book Fearless: A Guide to Freedom and Fulfilling Your Fullest Potential, a candid reflection on her own family, cross-cultural work experiences and sometimes harrowing adventures as a human rights journalist.

“I gravitate to the untold stories – I want people to feel heard.”
Yu has long given a voice to the voiceless through her pioneering investigations into the underworld of sex trafficking and modern-day slavery.
Decades of research resulted in her 2015 book Silenced No More: Voices of Comfort Women, which explores the history of thousands of women who were trafficked into forced prostitution by the Imperial Japanese armed forces before and during the second world war.
It features accounts of elderly Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Dutch and Filipino survivors of sex slavery as well as the former soldiers who raped the young girls.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Sylvia Yu Friedman (@sylviamatt.yf)



In 2021, Yu released A Long Road to Justice, a harrowing collection of stories about human trafficking survivors and her drive to raise awareness of their plight.
Hollywood producers Gina Gold and Aurorae Khoo – the executive producers of NCIS, the top-rated show on American network CBS – and veteran writer Galen Tong are now developing it into a TV series, Yu says.
What makes Fearless different is it is Yu’s story that is being heard.
“Writing a book is like connecting the dots and making meaning,” Yu says over coffee in Hong Kong’s Admiralty neighbourhood.
“For years, I was trying to understand other peoples’ stories, but with this book I turned that on myself.”
What adds depth to Fearless is that it successfully straddles both the memoir and motivational self-help genres.
I don’t want people to stew in self pity or victimhood, but to take that adversity and help make you more resilient
Sylvia Yu
In between deeply personal stories, Yu drops nuggets of wisdom she has mined throughout her decades in the corporate and philanthropic spaces.
“There are very few published motivational books written by Asian women for young adults – especially young women,” Yu says.
“I wish my younger broken self had this book.”
From the opening chapter, titled “Rejected At Birth”, it is clear how the seeds of her early struggles were sown. Her father wanted a son.
“I was born in Busan, South Korea. When I came into this world, instead of pride and joy, my father felt disappointment,” she writes in Fearless.
“My earliest memories are of him treating me like the son he never had. Though my father never talked to me about it, his preference for a son overshadowed my entire life.”

While her relationship with her father has healed, the rejection left a mark.
“If a parent is absent or not able to give you the nurture and the affirmation that you need when you’re young, it creates that deficit which leads to overcompensation later,” she says.
Racial discrimination experienced as a Korean-Canadian immigrant, the only Asian girl in a mostly Caucasian school – “I was the kid who was called a ‘Chink’” – also left dents.
But Yu does not want pity.
“I don’t want people to stew in self pity or victimhood, but to take that adversity and help make you more resilient – it gives you more grit,” she says.

As a young girl she was also ashamed of her Korean heritage. “Now the first piece of advice I give to anyone is, know who you are, know your identity.”
One of the most valuable life lessons gleaned from Fearless is how to handle toxic relationships in the workplace. The advice is shaped by Yu’s own experiences.
“It’s crucial to understand that hardening one’s heart is not the same as possessing psychological toughness or grit,” she says.
“True mental toughness isn’t about masking emotions in times of crisis; rather, it’s about fully engaging with our life experiences – embracing every lesson and grappling with every struggle.”
Guidance on how best to harness the power of a good mentor, as well as the importance of good friendships, is also found in Fearless.
The book explores love, too, from her first marriage that ended in divorce after a year, to her marriage with Matthew Friedman, founder of The Mekong Club, a Hong Kong-based non-profit organisation that joins forces with businesses to combat modern slavery.
The pair co-wrote Butterflies, a novel about Japanese military sex slavery that will be published in 2025.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Sylvia Yu Friedman (@sylviamatt.yf)



Fearless also touches on the post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, Yu grappled with after a near-death experience in China’s Yunnan province.
While investigating sex trafficking in a red-light district, Yu found herself in an altercation with a group of angry thugs and mama-sans.
“The day I was nearly killed in China was one of the most harrowing experiences I’ve ever had,” she writes in the book.
Filmmaking is another passion. In 2013, Yu made a series about human trafficking in China, Hong Kong and Thailand.
In 2018 she released a short film, From Darkness to Hope: Transformation of an Ex-Trafficker, followed in 2019 by Suffering in Silence: The Indonesian Child Maids, a documentary on underage domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and other parts of the region.


Past work with initiatives for some of the world’s wealthiest families helped her connect leading philanthropists with humanitarian projects.
Her latest career detour is in private equity, specialising in brokering professional sports deals, including some involving the National Basketball Association.
For those keen to create positive change, Yu says to first find a sense of purpose.
“And be fearless.”

Advice from Yu to her younger self:

Do not be paralysed by what others think


Laugh uncontrollably at least once a week, if not once a day


Do not rush into marriage


Believe in yourself and tell that creeping impostor syndrome to go to hell


Ignore the critics


Run fast from a toxic office


Stop diving into work mode all the time

Advice from Yu to her future self:

Believe in and love yourself


Keep learning and evolving


Stay humble and be grateful


Cultivate a passion for public service and helping others


Forgive people: it allows you to let go of grudges and bitterness


Choose loyal friends: they bring fun, love and meaning to life


Discover growth and challenge yourself by leaving your comfort zone. Take a job that scares you

Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.


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Author Sylvia Yu in Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse

Sylvia Yu in Hong Kong. The author and sex trafficking activist’s new book tells her story, from being “rejected at birth” to her brush with death. Photo: May Tse

A campaign poster for Mei, a young survivor of bride trafficking in China who Sylvia Yu interviewed in 2011. Photo: courtesy of Sylvia Yu

Yu aged three, during her first Christmas in Canada after immigrating from South Korea. The author says her father’s preference for a son deeply affected her childhood. Photo: courtesy of Sylvia Yu 

Yu in 2001 with the then 83-year-old Kim Soon-duk, a survivor of Japanese military forced prostitution. “This meeting launched my investigation into the trafficking underworld for two decades,” the author says. Photo: courtesy of Sylvia Yu

Yu holds a copy of her new book in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. The author advises those who want to create a positive change to be fearless. Photo: May Tse

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Hong Kong-based Sylvia Yu has given voice to sex trafficking victims for years. In her new memoir she inspires young women to be ‘fearless’


Hong Kong-based Sylvia Yu has given voice to sex trafficking victims for years. In her new memoir she inspires young women to be ‘fearless’.


Mental health

Human trafficking