Chen Xing (born 1980 or 1981), better known as Mike "Mikey" Xing Chen, is a Chinese-born American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

. A former staff member of

New Tang Dynasty Television New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD Television) is a multilingual American television broadcaster, founded by adherents of the Falun Gong new religious movement and based in New York City. The station was founded in 2001 as a Chinese-language ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel Off the Great Wall, Chen is notable for his YouTube channel Strictly Dumpling, a series of

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...

s 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 Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...

, China and moved to the United States when he was 8 years old. He grew up in the American Midwest, working at the Chinese buffets that his parents owned. In a

Reddit AMA r/IAmA is a subreddit for question-and-answer interactive interviews termed "AMA" (short for "Ask Me Anything"). AMA interviewees have ranged from various celebrities to everyday people in several lines of work. Founded in May 2009, the subredd ...

, Chen stated he attended

Truman State University Truman State University (TSU or Truman) is a public university in Kirksville, Missouri. It had 4,225 enrolled students in the fall of 2021 pursuing degrees in 52 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs. The university is named for U.S. Presiden ...

, where he majored in accounting with intentions of becoming an agent for the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

. During his time there, he also served as a

resident assistant A resident assistant (RA), also known by a variety of other names, is a trained peer leader who coordinates activities in residence halls in colleges and universities, mental health and substance abuse residential facilities, or similar establishm ...

. After graduating from college, he worked at

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

as a financial analyst but left after a year in 2006.

Career

Once Chen departed from Morgan Stanley, he worked as the head of digital strategy at the non-profit media company

. Chen cites his reason as being a practitioner of

Falun Gong Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a new religious movement.Junker, Andrew. 2019. ''Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora'', pp. 23–24, 33, 119 ...

, and he had wanted to promote awareness of human rights violations in China. While working at the company, he worked part-time filming weddings to earn income. Under New Tang Dynasty Television, Chen co-created the

channel Off the Great Wall, a channel discussing Chinese culture, with several other employees. In 2013, Chen began making

s 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, as well as his personal channel, Mike Chen. In 2015, 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. The two, along with Yi Yang, moved from New York to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California. 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. 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. In 2019, Chen was nominated under the Best in Food category for the

11th Shorty Awards The 11th Shorty Awards were held on May 5, 2019, in New York City at the PlayStation Theater. The ceremony was hosted by American actress and comedian Kathy Griffin, along with a music performance by Tank and the Bangas. The event was live stream ...

. He also announced he plans on opening Karne, a Korean steakhouse, in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

Personal life

Chen lived in New York while working with New Tang Dynasty Television, but after leaving in 2015, he moved to

, California. After living in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, Chen revealed he moved to

Allen, Texas Allen is a city in Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas, and a northern suburb of Dallas. According to the 2020 U.S. census its population was 104,627, up from 84,246 in 2010. Allen is located approximately twenty miles (32.2 km) north ...

, in 2021. Chen married Christine Ahn on July 12, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chen is a practitioner of

and cites it as a reason why he started doing non-profit work with New Tang Dynasty Television. Chen is also an outspoken critic of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

, accusing them of various human rights violations such as the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

and the persecution of

Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...

, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners. Due to his views on the Chinese Communist Party, in 2021, comedian

Nigel Ng Nigel Ng Kin-ju ( ; born 15 March 1991) is a Malaysian stand-up comedian and Internet celebrity based in England. Ng is better known by his Online identity, online persona Uncle Roger, a stereotypical middle-aged Asian man reviewing Asian food ...

deleted their video collaboration and apologized on

Weibo Weibo may refer to: * Microblogging in China, or China-based microblogging services (), including: ** NetEase Weibo (), launched by NetEase ** People's Weibo (), launched by ''People's Daily'' ** Phoenix Weibo (), launched by Phoenix Television ** W ...

for not realizing Chen's remarks about China.

References

External links

Strictly Dumpling

Beyond Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Mike Chinese emigrants to the United States English-language YouTube channels Falun Gong practitioners Morgan Stanley employees Truman State University alumni Video bloggers YouTube vloggers YouTubers from Texas Living people 1980s births Year of birth uncertain