A popular YouTuber from Taiwan who was once a vocal critic of Beijing has urged his fellow Taiwanese to experience life in Shanghai first-hand, calling the mainland metropolis a “super first-rate city” during a live-streamed visit aimed at challenging entrenched political narratives on the island.
“People in Taiwan should come to Shanghai, take a look at the city, and experience life here for several days,” Holger Chen Chih-han said on Wednesday, on the second day of his six-day trip.
Chen, better known to his millions of followers as Kuan Chang – the Gym Boss – arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday for a self-funded tour that he said was meant to offer Taiwanese audiences an unfiltered glimpse into mainland Chinese society.
Once a staunch supporter of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chen said his perceptions shifted after years of observing the mainland through social media which, in his view, revealed a stark gap between online reality and official messaging in Taiwan.
“The construction and development in Shanghai are super first-rate and as the city has advanced, quality of life here has also progressed,” Chen said in a live stream.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Taoyuan Airport on Tuesday, Chen said he had once been deeply influenced by anti-Beijing rhetoric in Taiwan. “I used to think I’d never set foot in China. I hated it. I believed everything the DPP told me,” he said.
“What I’ve seen online over the past year or two is completely different from what the DPP used to say. I’m spending my own money. I want to verify the truth myself and show people what I see.”
In a swipe at the DPP’s hardline policy towards Beijing – and at public sentiment in Taiwan that often brands those who engage with the mainland as potential traitors –Chen added: “Maybe after I come back, everyone will call me a Communist spy. Maybe my business will collapse. Maybe I’ll be homeless and spat on in the street.”
The outspoken influencer acknowledged that the trip could get him labelled as a traitor. “But I’m not afraid. I want to show people there’s nothing to fear about talking to each other.”
He also accused the DPP of applying double standards to cross-strait exchanges. “So the DPP people doing trade with China is just ‘economic cooperation’, but me live-streaming in China is ‘United Front’ work? What kind of nonsense logic is that?”
