Today we are going to take a look into Taiwan’s Youtube culture. Youtube is huge in Taiwan, and some Youtubers can rack up an unbelievable number of views. One of these Youtubers is Li Ke Tai Tai, a self-help Youtuber who specializes in using popular science to answer common questions.
Li Ke Tai Tai was born Chen Ying-dong (陳映彤) in Taipei. Her English name is Evelyn Chen. Chen did her undergraduate education at the University of Michigan before receiving a Master’s from Columbia University. She then went on to work in Silicon Valley at a laboratory. When the lab shut down, she returned to Taiwan.
In 2018 Chen officially began her Youtube channel Li Ke Tai Tai. She originally focused on explaining science to everyday people, and her content, coupled with her to-the-point delivery, quickly became a hit. Today, she has over 1 million subscribers, with some of her videos receiving millions of views.
Chen was in the news this week after she began offering a new online class focused on sharing tips and tricks she has learned in therapy. Some critics say Chen is illegally providing therapy without the training and licensing of a therapist. Officials say her class doesn’t break the law, but it’s still a shrewd way of providing a therapy-like product while not getting in trouble. But Chen says she hasn’t done anything wrong, and has made clear that her class is not a type of online therapy.
The controversy surrounding Li Ke Tai Tai’s new online class demonstrates the deep issues in Taiwanese mental health. Taiwan has only 2000 therapists working outside of hospitals, making therapy expensive and rare. If people could access therapy, would they really need to purchase a mental health tips online class from a Youtuber?