Boss Goes to China

How an influencer bro live-vlogged from China and changed the course of cross-strait relations.

Holger Chen a.k.a. Gym Boss a.k.a Notorious

“He’s the Joe Rogan of Taiwan. He’s got a foul mouth, and it’s aimed at the Chinese Communist Party,” was how Holger Chen, a.k.a. Gym Boss (館長) was introduced by Falun Gong-affiliated Youtube Channel China Uncensored when they featured him in 2020.

Back then, the former marine, MMA fighter, and owner of the Ghenghis Khan chain of gyms was a Tsai Ing-wen fanboy who would definitely cuss you out big time or worse if you called him “Chinese” rather than “Taiwanese.” And he’s got the t-shirt to prove it.

TAIWANESE NOT CHINESE!!!!! Takes me back to the COVID days

Fast forward five years later, he announced in June that he was going to take a visit as a “Peace Ambassador” to the mainland and vlog all of it. He came back proclaiming himself a proud Chinese. “If both sides of the straits work together, we will be invincible.”

From Tsai Fanboy to DPP’s Top Hater

In a way, the Boss and I followed a similar political arc. We were both enthusiastically pro-DPP in 2020 and loved to pandabash and go on and on about our Taiwanese Identity. Then we both got majorly disillusioned with DPP incompetence on bread-and-butter issues. Then we both turned to the relatively apolitical Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), with its promise of being focused on good policy rather than polarizing politics.

The difference is I’m just a gadfly writing about Taiwan in English. Boss is full-on famous. I realized in the moment he announced his tour that it was going to be a bellwether event. I just had no idea how momentous it would be.

While I personally came to become strongly opposed to the DPP because of their disastrous energy policy, for Boss and the majority of the TPP crowd, the hate started with the perceived DPP lawfare against TPP standard-bearer Ko Wen-je. When Boss went to China and declared himself a proud, authentic Chinese, he didn’t just crash through the Overton Window of what one is allowed to say in Taiwan, he took all of his TPP fanboys with him.

Proud Chinese from Taiwan

Before you know it, people were popping off ALL OVER SOCIAL MEDIA proclaiming themselves as Chinese. Something that I have never ever seen before in Taiwan. Recall the famous poll of Changes in Taiwanese/Chinese Identity of Taiwanese by NCCU. Over time, we’ve seen respondants identifying as Chinese only plumetting down to zero, “Taiwanese and Chinese” fall steadily while those identifying as purely Chinese shot over 60%. I can tell you the change was even starker on Social Media until like a month ago.

So how is it possible that my socials all of a sudden become inundated with posts from Taiwanese people proclaiming that they are proud Chinese? Lest you think I’m cherrypicking, just go to Threads, where most of the younger Taiwanese hang out. Or just go under any of the Boss’ China videos where he’s mostly gushing about basic infrastructure or robots etc. (He’s since gone back for another trip with higher production value. I recommend this stream where he went to Shenzhen.)

“I’m a Chinese person from Taiwan. Is there a problem with that?”

“Everyone in my family is a proud Chinese. Eat Shit DPP!”

“I have never forgotten my roots. I identify as Chinese. I want Taiwan to stay far from the threat of war, and return to our glory days as a Little Dragon of Asia.”

“We are all Chinese. Just born in Taiwan.”

“I’m Chinese! Chinese Taiwanese! Of the Motherland!”

The Accidental Fellow Traveler

There are some who still insist it’s all a Chinese propaganda op. That Boss was somehow paid off by the CCP, and who then coordinated to flood social media with bot farms and fake accounts. But I don’t think so.

First of all, for all the talk about Wumaos and fake Chinese propaganda accounts, I’ve rarely come across convincing or well-done Chinese propaganda. Even the self-proclaimed “wumaos” on twitter usually turns out to be just some disgruntled Chinese rando netizen.

In fact, it’s highly unlikely that the Chinese authorities would have chosen to work with somebody as disreputable as Boss. In fact, when he did appear on a Chinese Central Television program, they ended up blurring out his heavily tattooed arms, leading him to be made fun of by the pan-Greens, who called them his “transparent wings.”

Red China gives you Wiiiiiiiiings!

Another reason why I’m sure the Boss phenomenon is pretty organic is that it matched up with what I was seeing in real life. People were attending TPP rallies wearing T-shirts that says “I’m the Impurity”, a reference to a speech by President Lai Ching-te when he explained that the we needed “election after election, recall after recall, to rid our democracy of its impurities.” Together with the message that the Mass Recall of opposition lawmakers is because they’re in cahoots with China, everyone who felt anti-DPP in Taiwan were kind of negatively polarized into being pro-China. The psychology is kind of like…if you’re going to smear me as a pro-China fellow traveler (中共同路人), let me show you what that looks like.

To Serve The People…or not

The anger of the people were compounded when Typhoon Danas hit and the DPP was too busy with their Mass Recall elections to visit the stricken properly. Southern townships were left without power for more than a week and some places without coverage for a month. When President Lai was begged by local residents to mobilize the military to help clear debris, he gave them some excuse about how the military isn’t allowed by law to go into civilian dwellings.

This contrasted powerfully with June’s floodings in Guizhou, where widely-circulated videos showed the People’s Liberation Army swiftly mobilizing en-masse and taking care of business. “We treat a natural disaster like we treat a battlefield,” said the Chinese Ministry of Defense. I dunno. Maybe I’ve been propagandized. But it sure seems the Chinese government is doing a better job of taking care of the people than the DPP.

An 88-year-old grandma died in a fire in Tainan 12 days after the typhoon. Her house still didn’t have electricity and she used a candle which caused the fire. When I posted about it on twitter a Chinese follower asked incredulously “why wasn’t a emergency generator dispatched immediately to her village?” I…I don’t know.

The War on Taiwanese Wallets

Another huge source of organic dissatisfaction was Donald Trumps’ Big Squeeze on Taiwan for Tariffs, TSMC and defense spending. Gym Boss did not hold back on this issue:

“Why do we have to be America’s dogs? Why do we have to give so much protection money to the US every year? Americans take what they want of the Taiwanese and we can’t say no while Chinese policies help Taiwan economically.”

“We’re getting nothing but identity politics to make you forget your ancestors and blood. China’s too strong. The Americans need a way to trip them up. Taiwanese want to help them? Who are the DPP? They are traitors to the Han people. Just like the traitors who helped the Japanese slaughter their fellow Chinese. Except now they work for the Americans. Treat the Chinese like a brother and they will treat you like a brother. Be a minion for the US like Korea and Japan? Your fate is to be robbed. Military purchases, Tariffs, it never stops.”

“We work like cattle and horses to earn money from the Americans. Now they say ‘it’s too much.’ Tariff is war by other means. It’s disrespect. It’s exploitation. Where is the justice? They’re out of money. Where do they get it from? Their closest allies. China? Left alone. So don’t you think this is a world where only the size of your fist matters?”

The Fifth Popcorn

I feel like I’ve undergone a lot of political changes that’s been shocking and dismaying my friends. They don’t understand the speed of it. They are shocked by the direction and the vitriolic passion. I might get my Democracy-loving Neoliberal card taken away.

I want people to understand that this change didn’t happen in a vacuum. I don’t just live in Taiwan, I live a Taiwanese life, which is surprisingly rare for those engaging on “Taiwan Twitter”. I binge the same insane talk shows. I’m in group chats with the local people. Through my work in energy, I also saw the frustration of working with government. The heat, the pressure Taiwan has been under was something I felt deep in my core before one day I just POPPED!

I jokingly call myself the fourth popcorn because it was still in that awkward phase when being an anti-DPP Chinaboo made me very fringe and almost unsavory EVEN IN MY OWN MIND! I felt like I screamed in public. I felt like I cut my own hair and then stumbled around the MRT in my underwear like a crazy woman. And I felt alone like a popcorn that popped early in the pan then just awkwardly hung around.

But then Gym Boss went to China. And when HE popped all of a sudden there was an explosion and the popcorn overflowed. All of a sudden, we realized that we weren’t the minority. It was the politically-correct DPP going around castigating people for not having enough “Taiwanese Consciousness” that everybody was sick and tired of. We asked for good governance and enough toughness to stand up to Trump. They gave us political witch-hunts and kowtowing to the Americans.

Will you still love us, tomorrow?

Who knows. Maybe it’s all a flash in the pan and everything will somehow go back to normal. But…I don’t think so. I think there are political changes afoot in Taiwan that will see the pendulum swing away from the plucky little rainbow Boba democracy the world has come to know and love during the COVID years. No more winsome Lady President. No more Freedom Pineapples. And maybe soon, no more desire to STAND UP TO CHOYNA as the frontier representative of the rule-based international order. No more TAIWAN IS A COUNTRY!

I wonder if all the lovely western supporters for Taiwan will still think of us fondly if we decided, y’know, not to be the most Dangerous Place in the world after all. I have a feeling not everyone. But maybe some of you will?

And anyhow, we’ll always have Drag Queens in the Presidential Office right before Tsai Ing-wen left office, 2024. That was probably top of the Taiwan media bubble. Lai never had the same charm did he? Oh well, all good things come to an end…

Pride of Taiwan! Ru Paul Drag Race winner Nymphia Wiind and her drag house at the Presidential Office.