30-Second Overview: JiuJiu Shoe first gained attention by translating foreign memes, then deleted his most popular old works to transform his chemistry background into a knowledge channel focused on research, explanation, and continuous self-learning. This is a story of stepping back from traffic metrics to reclaim creative agency.
In 2013, inside a National Central University dormitory, Hsieh Jen-chieh began recording videos with a camera that had no guaranteed audience. At that time, no one was entirely sure that "YouTuber" was a viable profession. He started by translating foreign memes and funny videos, putting the name "JiuJiu Shoe" (JiuJiu Xie) onto the internet. 1
Five years later, he had become a knowledge-oriented YouTuber in Taiwan. The most notable aspect of this path is that he once deleted all his translation works, which were the easiest to attract views. To let the audience get to know a channel truly responsible by him, he first gave up a portion of the traffic. 2
Image: Taiwan Boulevard, photo by Taichung, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved from Archive Page.
Image: The Hakka College building at National Central University, photo by SSR2000, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Retrieved from Archive Page.
A Pair of Shoes and an Uncertain Path
Hsieh Jen-chieh graduated from the Department of Chemistry at National Central University. During college, he studied chemistry while making videos in the dorm. These two things seemed unrelated, but later became the same kind of work: finding data, understanding it, and explaining content that others found too dense in an accessible way. 1
He did not know from the start that he wanted to do science popularization. Records from a 2017 independent media lecture at Shih Hsin University show that he initially made translated funny videos, tried software tutorials, food reviews, and English teaching, until he received positive feedback on knowledge-type videos, gradually finding the type that suited him. 3
In that lecture, he broke down long-term channel management into three things: mindset, personal style, and action. He also said that if one wants to treat being a YouTuber as a career, one cannot rely solely on confidence, but must first prepare goals and the passion for continuous creation. 3
This answer does not promise that "being yourself will make you popular." It is closer to a job description: having goals, being able to repeat the process, and continuing to adjust even when no one is applauding.
Deleting Translations, Leaving Questions
JiuJiu Shoe's early fame came from translating foreign images and videos. Records from a 2018 interview show that he later removed all translation works because that content was not his own creation and involved secondary creation and copyright issues. 4
He said, "I am very clear that to appear as a creator, I cannot keep translation works." 4
The weight of this statement lies in the fact that loss indeed occurred after the deletion. A profile in Cheers magazine noted that subscribers brought by old works gradually left, and self-made content did not immediately fill the gap; the transition period lasted 20 months. At that time, a single video might only get 2,000 to 3,000 views, and the total monthly advertising income for all videos was about $500. 5
He admitted that he had to start over when traffic declined. This choice transformed "JiuJiu Shoe" from a mere internet name into a creative identity for which the person himself is responsible.
A Steak, Putting the Channel Back in His Own Hands
The turning point was not a grand award ceremony, but a short video about steak. JiuJiu Shoe explained that the red liquid flowing out after cutting a steak is not blood, but myoglobin. This topic was both everyday and gave his chemistry background a clear application. 5
A 2024 report from Yang Taichung looked back at this process. The article pointed out that in the relatively early days of the YouTube ecosystem in 2015 and 2016, he chose a less popular knowledge route. Later, the "steak juice is not blood" video became the first to break through 100,000 subscribers, confirming that he was good at organizing information and sharing it. 6
The same report placed his creative starting point back in Taichung and the National Central University dorm. His first video was a free software tutorial recorded in the male dormitory No. 9 of National Central University. Later, he continued shooting in the dorm, rental apartments, and his old home in Taiping, Taichung. The channel did not sprout from a media center, but slowly grew its own format in everyday spaces. 6
The success of the steak video does not mean JiuJiu Shoe only does chemistry from then on. It is more like an editorial discovery: audiences do not need to like science first to want to know what happens in a steak.
Chemistry Didn't Disappear, It Just Changed Jobs
An IOH interview record shows that after his grades dropped in his sophomore year, JiuJiu Shoe began to doubt whether he should continue on the path of graduate school and the tech industry. He said that theoretical courses in pure sciences sometimes put people in a "state detached from the real world," leading him to ask what the purpose of learning these things was. 1
However, leaving the typical career path of the chemistry department is not the same as throwing away chemistry. To make science videos, he usually spends 10 to 20 hours reading literature and designing scripts. University book-report discussion classes trained him to find academic papers, organize presentations, and face professors and classmates; these abilities later became the basic workflow of his channel work. 1
Image: The library of National Central University, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Retrieved from Archive Page.
A 2020 report from Turnover Education called him a "omnivore" of knowledge. He does not only look at science, but also reads psychology and business management, because after opening a studio, he needed to supplement business knowledge he had not previously encountered. He made Jiu Read (Jiu Du) a book-review program, partly to force himself to continue reading. 7
He said in that interview, "Basically, every video is self-learning!" 7
Interest here is an entry point for labor. Every video requires finding data, judging sources, writing scripts, shooting, editing, marketing, and accepting comments from viewers pointing out where he was unclear.
Knowledge Videos Have Their Own Commercial Problems
JiuJiu Shoe's channel is not a classroom isolated from the market. In a 2018 interview, he discussed how YouTube advertising revenue is usually insufficient to support creators, so he still needs to take sponsored content, give lectures, or offer subscription plans. But his restriction to himself is that sponsored content cannot just leave product messages; it must also give something to viewers who do not need the product. 4
He said, "Even when doing sponsored content, I want my viewers to gain something, so that the 99% of viewers who do not need this product can also benefit from the video." 4
This principle does not eliminate the problem of commercial cooperation. It lays the problem bare: when knowledge becomes a commodity, how do viewers know if a video is explaining the world or building credibility for a product? What JiuJiu Shoe can do is state his own standards, leaving the right of judgment to the viewers.
At the same time, he collaborated with PressPlay on a subscription project. A Knowing interview record notes that three months after the project went live, the total amount reached second place on the platform. The report also recorded that in early 2018, he was listed as the 33rd largest YouTuber in Taiwan and became a top creator among knowledge channels. These numbers are a time slice of that period and should not be directly taken as today's rankings. 4
From One Person to a Studio
In 2018, JiuJiu Shoe had already started thinking about a studio. In an interview, he said he hoped someone would share planning, data collection, shooting, and editing, and that one day he could retreat to the background, letting new faces appear in front of the camera. 4
Turnover Education recorded in 2020 that he had formed a studio, with channel subscribers exceeding 650,000, and the PressPlay project having over 350 subscribers, with monthly subscription income approaching NT$120,000. These numbers show that for a personal channel to move towards a team, it is not just about adding manpower, but also ensuring income is sufficient to pay for new work. 7
A 2022 Apple Podcasts interview page listed him as a knowledge YouTuber with 1.58 million subscribers, with conversation topics extending from independent media trends to investment and financial content. The page is program information rather than an independent statistical report, so this number should be understood as the host's introduction when the program was uploaded, and should not be used to calculate long-term growth curves. 8
A 2025 press release from a lecture co-hosted by Chinese Culture University and the Taichung City Government Youth Bureau recorded him giving a speech titled "From a STEM Otaku to a YouTuber," attracting over 300 teachers and students on site. This is a first-hand page from the event organizer, proving the event and topic, but insufficient to prove all channel achievements alone, so this article only uses it in the context of public sharing. 9
He moved from shooting videos alone in a dorm to needing to collaborate with planners, editors, and studio partners. This transformation also changed the meaning of the name "JiuJiu Shoe": it is not just a face, but a research, narrative, and production process.
From Dorm Creation to Public Sharing
JiuJiu Shoe's story can show scale changes through several time points, but these numbers can only represent cross-sections of various reports, not directly pieced together into a precise subscriber growth curve. In 2013, he started translating and recording videos in a National Central University dorm. In 2018, he faced the pressure of transitioning after deleting translation works, and also started talking about studios, sponsored content, and subscription plans. In 2020, Turnover Education recorded his studio and the Jiu Read project. In 2022, Apple Podcasts introduced him as a million-level YouTuber. In 2025, he shared his experience of entering independent media from a STEM background at Chinese Culture University. In 2026, NOWnews reported on his life from the perspective of family and continuous updates. 1 4 7 8 9 10
Source: IOH, Yahoo/Knowing, Turnover Education, Apple Podcasts, Chinese Culture University NewsBuffet, NOWnews
The most important thing about this timeline is not to prove he rose continuously, but to show that the channel's work content increased step by step. The early core was translation and video recording; the transition period added data topic selection and original scripts; after the studio was established, it added management, division of labor, and income arrangements. When the figure moves from one person to a team, the creator's "works" also expand from a single video to a process that can be handed over, corrected, and maintained.
Taichung is the Condition of Work
A 2024 Yang Taichung report placed JiuJiu Shoe in the creator landscape of Taichung. Except for the period of living in the university dorm, he hardly left Taichung, living, marrying, and establishing a studio there. The report recorded that he believes Taichung's streets, housing prices, transportation, and spatial conditions allow the creative team to operate outside Taipei. 6
This detail is worth noting. Online creation seems to have no geographical limits, but platforms still have centers. Interviews, brands, agencies, and media resources are often concentrated in Taipei. JiuJiu Shoe staying in Taichung does not mean he is disconnected from the industry, but rather that he put shooting space, living costs, and local belonging into creative decisions.
He did not film Taichung as a tourist attraction, but treated it as a condition for long-term work. The dorm, old home, studio, and park are all life outside the channel, and also the reason the channel can continue.
No "Zero Negative Reviews" Person, Only People Who Continuously Correct
A 2026 NOWnews report described JiuJiu Shoe as "Taiwan's zero-negative-review YouTuber," recording that after 11 years of operating the channel, he became a father of two children while still maintaining video updates. The report quoted him from public videos, presenting the state where family and work become tighter simultaneously. 10
"Zero negative reviews" is a media label, not a precisely verifiable personality conclusion. JiuJiu Shoe's importance does not lie in whether he was truly never criticized, but in the fact that he long built the channel on finding data, admitting exploration, and repeated correction. This low-drama work style appears rare in an online environment easily pushed by exaggerated titles.
He once said, "I hope one day I can retreat to the background." 4 Reading this sentence now, it is more like a pre-acknowledgment of the creator's lifecycle. The person in front of the camera will age, platform rules will change, audiences will change; what may remain is not a fixed persona, but that set of working methods still willing to verify, organize, and explain.
Further Reading
- Taiwan YouTuber Industry and Culture, to understand the platform and creator environment JiuJiu Shoe is in.
- Taiwan Independent Media Creator Economy, further reading on how personal channels face commercialization.
- Taiwan Academy, comparing another Taiwanese audio-visual creation centered on knowledge and history.
References
- IOH: Don't Let Your Major Define Who You Are! JiuJiu Shoe: Even if Your Undergraduate Major Isn't the Strongest, You Can Still Forge Your Own Path — A 2018 profile interview, detailing Hsieh Jen-chieh's National Central University chemistry background, channel origin, deletion of translation works, shift to originality, and literature review methods, including multiple direct quotes from the subject.↩2345
- Sinmedia: The Super Marginal King of Cold Knowledge, Taichung Local Million-Subscriber YouTuber JiuJiu Shoe — A 2024 Taichung profile, tracing the 2013 dorm creation starting point, the steak video, Taichung life, and studio, with the original page also presenting his local life and creative choices.↩
- Shih Hsin University: Want to Be a YouTuber? JiuJiu Shoe's Three Secrets Let You Explore the "Jiu" Mystery — A Shih Hsin University 2017 event detail page, recording Hsieh Jen-chieh's speech content, early translations and various attempts, and his explanation of the three creative conditions of mindset, personal style, and action.↩2
- Knowing/Yahoo奇摩: JiuJiu Shoe: I'm Just Purely Sharing and Conveying Knowledge, Even When Doing Sponsored Content — A 2018 full interview, covering copyright considerations for translation works, knowledge channel positioning, PressPlay, sponsored content principles, studio, and long-term thoughts on retreating to the background.↩2345678
- Cheers: Knowledge YouTuber JiuJiu Shoe / Life Material Arouses Curiosity, Softening Hard Knowledge with Images and Text — A 2018 profile, recording the ~20 month transition period, early views and advertising income, the steak myoglobin video, and how knowledge content enters from life details.↩2
- Yang Taichung/Yahoo奇摩: Super Marginal King of Cold Knowledge, Taichung Local Million-Subscriber YouTuber JiuJiu Shoe — A 2024 local profile detail page, providing Taichung life and studio context, creation locations, the steak video turning point, and its description of knowledge exchange.↩23
- Turnover Education: Popular YouTuber JiuJiu Shoe, Being an "Omnivore" of Knowledge to Equip Himself with Diverse Abilities — A 2020 education media interview, explaining how he self-learned to shoot videos, read psychology and management, operated Jiu Read, and moved from the chemistry department to diverse ability work.↩234
- Apple Podcasts: EP10 Guest Interview | Million-Level YouTuber Discusses Independent Media Trends ft. JiuJiu Shoe — An English interface program detail page on Apple Podcasts, marking the 2022 interview date, program length, and the host's introduction of JiuJiu Shoe's channel scale and independent media content.↩2
- Chinese Culture University NewsBuffet: STEM Male Transforms into Million-Follower Internet Celebrity JiuJiu Shoe Visits CCU to Reveal and Share — A 2025 university event press release, recording JiuJiu Shoe's speech on STEM background and independent media creation, event attendance, and public sharing context, belonging to a first-hand page from the event organizer.↩2
- NOWnews: Taiwan's Zero-Negative-Review YouTuber is Him! JiuJiu Shoe Upgrades to 2 Dads, Filming Videos and Burning Efforts on Both Sides of Family — A 2026 profile news detail page, quoting JiuJiu Shoe's public videos, recording the life turning point of parallel family and video updates, and reviewing the time point when the channel broke through 1 million subscribers in 2019.↩2