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

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. A former staff member of New Tang Dynasty Television's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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

vlog A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, 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 one ta ...

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 8 million subscribers on all of his YouTube channels combined.

Early life

Chen was born in

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

, 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 Reddit#Subreddits, 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 Ma ...

, Chen stated he attended

Truman State University Truman State University (TSU or Truman) is a Public university, public Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Kirksville, Missouri, United States. It had 3,664 enrolled students in the fall of 2024 pursuing degrees in 55 undergraduate ...

, 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 agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. 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 establish ...

. After graduating from college, he worked at

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

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 New Tang Dynasty Television. Chen cites his reason as being a practitioner of

Falun Gong Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a new religious movement founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near t ...

, 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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

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

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

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 the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, Chen revealed he moved to

Allen, Texas Allen is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County in the U.S. state of Texas, and a northern suburb in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The population was 104,627 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and was estimated to be 111 ...

, 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 Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

, accusing them of various human rights violations such as the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

and the persecution of Uyghurs, Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners. Due to his views on the Chinese Communist Party, in 2021, comedian Nigel Ng deleted their video collaboration and apologized on

Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

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 Chinese anti-communists American anti-communists Morgan Stanley employees Truman State University alumni American YouTube vloggers YouTubers from Texas Living people 1980s births Year of birth uncertain YouTubers from San Francisco YouTubers from Seattle People from Allen, Texas American human rights activists