Mike Chen Explained

Mike Chen
Birth Name:Chen Xing[1]
Birth Place:Xi'an, China
Occupation:YouTuber
Alma Mater:Truman State University
Years Active:2006present
Module:
Embed:yes
Subscribers:8.62 million (combined)
Views:1.67 billion (combined)
Silver Button:yes
Gold Button:yes
Stats Update:May 9, 2022
Module2:
Child:yes
Name1:Chen Xing
P:Chén Xīng

Chen Xing (born 1980 or 1981),[1] better known as Mike "Mikey" Xing Chen, is a Chinese-born American YouTuber. A former staff member of New Tang Dynasty Television's YouTube channel Off the Great Wall, Chen is notable for his YouTube channel Strictly Dumpling, a series of vlogs focusing on food and travel. In addition to running Strictly Dumpling, Chen also runs the YouTube channels Cook With Mikey (previously Pho the Love of Food), Eat With Mikey, Beyond Science, Mike Chen, The Chen Dynasty (previously The Double Chen Show), and The CheNews (previously The Double Chen News). Chen has over 5 million subscribers on all of his YouTube channels combined.

Early life

Chen was born in Xi'an, China and moved to the United States when he was 8 years old.[2] He grew up in the American Midwest,[3] [4] working at the Chinese buffets that his parents owned.[2]

In a Reddit AMA, Chen stated he attended Truman State University, where he majored in accounting with intentions of becoming an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[5] During his time there, he also served as a resident assistant.[6] After graduating from college,[2] he worked at Morgan Stanley as a financial analyst but left after a year in 2006.[4]

Career

Once Chen departed from Morgan Stanley, he worked as the head of digital strategy at the non-profit media company New Tang Dynasty Television.[4] Chen cites his reason as being a practitioner of Falun Gong,[3] and he had wanted to promote awareness of human rights violations in China.[2] While working at the company, he worked part-time filming weddings to earn income.[2]

Under New Tang Dynasty Television, Chen co-created the YouTube channel Off the Great Wall, a channel discussing Chinese culture, with several other employees.[7] In 2013, Chen began making vlogs about food, which eventually led him to create multiple YouTube channels dedicated to food vlogs, such as Cook With Mikey (previously Pho the Love of Food), Eat With Mikey, and Strictly Dumpling. In addition, he also runs Beyond Science, a video series discussing strange phenomena,[4] as well as his personal channel, Mike Chen.[2]

In 2015,[4] Chen left New Tang Dynasty Television and Off the Great Wall with his co-worker, Dan Chen, citing creative differences. Chen and Dan then created the YouTube channel The Double Chen Show.[7] The two, along with Yi Yang, moved from New York to San Francisco, California.[8] In addition, Chen, Dan, and Yang created The Double Chen News (commentary on current events in China) and Awesome Toy Review! (toy reviews) as sub-channels.[9] In 2016, Dan and Yang left all three channels to return to New York, while Chen continued The Double Chen Show and The Double Chen News, rebranding them as The Chen Dynasty and The CheNews respectively based on fan suggestions.[8] [9]

In 2019, Chen was nominated under the Best in Food category for the 11th Shorty Awards.[10] [11] He also announced he plans on opening Karne, a Korean steakhouse, in Dallas, Texas.[2] [12]

Personal life

Chen lived in New York while working with New Tang Dynasty Television, but after leaving in 2015, he moved to San Francisco, California.[8] After living in Seattle, Washington, Chen revealed he moved to Allen, Texas, in 2021.[2] Chen married Christine Ahn on July 12, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.[13]

Chen is a practitioner of Falun Gong and cites it as a reason why he started doing non-profit work with New Tang Dynasty Television.[3] Chen is also an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party, accusing them of various human rights violations such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and the persecution of Uyghurs, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners.[14] [15] Due to his views on the Chinese Communist Party, in 2021, comedian Nigel Ng deleted their video collaboration and apologized on Weibo for not realizing Chen's remarks about China.[14] [15]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: "罗杰叔叔"黃瑾瑜删除与"反共"网红合作视频引发风波 . "Uncle Roger" Nigel Ng deletes collaboration video with "anti-Communist" Internet celebrity, causing a storm . zh . . 2021-01-15 . 2022-05-30 . March 21, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220321203026/https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-55658474 . live .
  2. News: Sarah . Blaskovich . Meet Mike Chen, the YouTube food star who just moved to this Dallas suburb . . 2021-04-23 . 2022-05-09 . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510060828/https://www.dallasnews.com/food/restaurant-news/2021/04/23/meet-mike-chen-the-youtube-food-star-who-just-moved-to-this-dallas-suburb/ . live .
  3. News: Sam . Becker . Mike Chen: Here's what it takes to become a YouTube star . Grow . 2019-05-13 . 2022-05-09 . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510054620/https://grow.acorns.com/how-mike-chen-became-a-youtube-star/ . live .
  4. News: Emma . Fierberg . Tom . Huddleston Jr. . 'Strictly Dumpling' YouTuber Mike Chen's best and 'most expensive' food day ever . . 2019-07-13 . 2022-05-09 . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510054613/https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/13/strictly-dumpling-youtuber-mike-chens-most-expensive-food-day.html . live .
  5. Web site: Hi, I'm Mike Chen! I travel the world trying all types of local cuisines – AMA about my travels, food I've tried, tips and tricks for planning a trip, etc. . . 2018 . 2022-05-09 . I majored in Accounting to become a FBI agent...yes seriously! . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510091355/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8osxyo/hi_im_mike_chen_i_travel_the_world_trying_all/e05yymj/ . live .
  6. Web site: Hi, I'm Mike Chen! I travel the world trying all types of local cuisines – AMA about my travels, food I've tried, tips and tricks for planning a trip, etc. . . 2018 . 2022-05-09 . But yeah, my college campus was EXTREMELY haunted. Truman State. One night at 2AM while I was on rounds (I was an RA), I heard footsteps above me and it matched me stride by stride. . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510091402/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8osxyo/hi_im_mike_chen_i_travel_the_world_trying_all/e061l56/ . live .
  7. Mike . Chen . Dan . Chen . 2015-09-22 . Our New Home: Why We Left OTGW . Video . 2022-05-09 . 1:03 . Mike: We created Off the Great Wall with, uh, a group of people. [...] And recently, the channel, um, you know, because there's other opinions on there [...] —that we have to listen to as well, and with the direction that it was going, we didn't really love. . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510054546/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgFZoqqEk60&gl=US&hl=en . live .
  8. Mike . Chen . Dan . Chen . Yi . Yang . 2016-10-11 . Our Last Video Together... . Video . 2022-05-09 . 0:13 . Dan: I mean, so, you guys know, like, Mike and I, we were in New York, and then we moved to San Francisco about a few months ago to, you know, work on YouTube to make [videos] for you guys [...] but Yi and I, we actually—due to our personal circumstances, um, we need to move back, uh, to the—to the East Coast [...] but it's not a bad thing because Mike is always gonna be here. . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510054546/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gthP7XutpA&gl=US&hl=en . live .
  9. Mike . Chen . 2016-10-17 . Help Me NAME This Channel! . Video . 2022-05-09 . 1:29 . Mike: I want to just throw this out there and ask you guys to come up with the names for—the new names—for The Double Chen Show and Double Chen News. . May 14, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220514050928/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=JdQAbYnXK3M . live .
  10. Web site: 11th Annual Influencer Nominees – The Shorty Awards . . 2022-05-09 . February 21, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190221054722/https://shortyawards.com/11th/influencer/nominees . live .
  11. News: Michelle Obama, Noah Centineo, Marie Kondo, John Mulaney Win 2019 Shorty Awards . . 2019-05-05 . 2022-06-26 . June 26, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220626093642/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/2019-shorty-award-winners-list-full-1206922/food-7 . live .
  12. News: Lane . Gillespie . Korean steakhouse from Houston favorite to open next year . . 2019-10-17 . 2022-05-09 . October 16, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221016051538/https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/10/17/korean-steakhouse-from-houston-favorite-to-open.html . live .
  13. Web site: DocDetails . 2023-01-04 . clerk.clarkcountynv.gov . January 4, 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230104205740/https://clerk.clarkcountynv.gov/AcclaimWeb/Document/DocDetails?TransactionItemId=14221597 . live .
  14. News: Uncle Roger comedian deletes video with China critic . . 2021-01-13 . 2022-05-09 . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510054612/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55651798 . live .
  15. News: Phoebe . Zhang . Comedian Uncle Roger pulls video with anti-Beijing food vlogger Mike Chen from Strictly Dumpling – but draws a backlash . . 2021-01-13 . 2022-05-09 . May 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220510054613/https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3117593/uncle-roger-comedian-sorry-video-anti-beijing-food-vlogger . live .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mike Chen".

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