30-Second Overview: Jiong Xing Ren did not become one of Taiwan’s early knowledge-based YouTubers by first learning to please audiences. She first brought over a decade of film review writing into the camera frame, then used a fake beard—originally worn to hide braces—to establish a storytelling position that refuses to pose as an authority. Her channel proves that Taiwanese audiences are willing to pay for content, while simultaneously exposing the difficult questions subscription models pose for creative autonomy.
Image Caption: This is not a photo of Jiong Xing Ren herself or her events, but a freely licensed environmental photo from the Taipei International Book Fair, used to present the reading and publishing scene in which she has long created. The image is by the Presidential Office (Taiwan), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic, with original details at the Wikimedia Commons image page. The image uses a Wikimedia Commons hotlink; this article did not download or rehost the image.
In 2013, Yu Yue moved her long-standing habit of writing film reviews to YouTube. She did not start from a fully equipped production company; instead, she first tried to transform her way of watching movies, reading, and organizing information into a voice that others could watch and listen to. By 2014, her video reviewing Frozen had approached one million views, and the fake beard had evolved from a temporary prop to hide braces into a hallmark that audiences remembered. 1
The most counter-intuitive part of this story is not that "a person who reads a lot became an internet celebrity." What is truly worth recording is that she did not package herself as an aloof teacher. She said she was not doing book reviews, but "storytelling," and wanted to lower her posture to become a friend of book lovers. 2
📝 Curator’s Note: Internet celebrity stories are easily written as upward curves of traffic. Jiong Xing Ren’s curve is more like a repeatedly diverted path: blogging, film reviews, book reviews, subscription crowdfunding, and then returning to ask what kind of content she is willing to do long-term.
The Fake Beard Is Not a Persona, It Is an Entrance
Before Jiong Xing Ren started making videos, she had already written film reviews for over a decade. This textual work made her familiar with how to describe the strengths and weaknesses of a work, and taught her that criticism is not about shouting one’s preferences the loudest, but about organizing viewing experiences into words that others can grasp. After 2013, she switched this organizational work to oral commentary, gradually building her channel. 2
The reason she originally wore the fake beard was small: to hide braces. But once a small prop is remembered by the audience, it is no longer just a cover; it becomes a fixed entrance. Black-rimmed glasses, androgynous styling, a deep voice, and the fake beard allowed her to establish recognizability that did not rely on glamorous scenes during a period when Taiwan’s YouTube had not yet formed a clear professional imagination. 1
A career article reprinted by Kan Magazine traces back that she started operating a blog in 2005, once subscribed to hundreds of websites’ RSS feeds, read nearly a thousand articles daily, and translated or organized new knowledge from English and Japanese websites into text. After starting to share commentary via audio and video in 2014, the first video had accumulated over 5,000 views before the second video went online, and the channel exceeded 10,000 subscribers three months later. 3
These numbers should not be read as "success comes from just reading many articles every day." They are more like a work record of early internet creation: when platforms lacked mature division of labor, creators had to simultaneously act as researchers, editors, hosts, editors, and their own distributors.
Reading Precedes Traffic
When Jiong Xing Ren talks about reading, she speaks of childhood. Around age four, she began listening to story cassette tapes; after her mother finished reading a page of the newspaper, she handed it to Yu Yue to continue reading, linking literacy and reading with memories of mother-daughter interaction. An interview in Parent-Child World wrote this experience as the internal starting point for her later storytelling, rather than merely a background for success. 4
She later launched Jiong Storytelling, introducing one or a few books per episode in about ten minutes. She said that from selecting books to editing might take over thirty hours; she might read five books, but finally introduce only the one she truly liked. This ratio is important because it shows that storytelling is not about putting book titles and golden quotes on screen, but first making choices, then turning the reasons for those choices into content. 1
Her channel once had different segments such as Jiong Xing Ren Film Reviews, Jiong Knowledge, Jiong Storytelling, Jiong Star Q&A, and Jiong Star Life. Content that could generate profit was often used by her to support those more niche topics that might not immediately recover costs. This arrangement made her channel less like a shop producing a single commodity, and more like a magazine maintained by different columns. 2
She also does not position herself as a mentor. An interview with Women迷 (Women’s迷) records her saying that she had studied knowledge-based programs in China, knowing that the speaker must believe in themselves to make the audience believe in the content, but she still wanted to treat herself as a friend of the audience. 2
📝 Curator’s Note: "Friend" is not a lighter authority, but another kind of responsibility. A friend can explain complex matters in plain language, but cannot pretend to hold all the answers. Jiong Xing Ren’s credibility partly begins from this self-limitation.
From Film Reviews to Storytelling: The Medium Changed, Not the Curiosity
An article from The Economist Taiwan described her as moving from a publishing house director and office worker to a full-time independent media creator. Her early YouTube ad income was only about 3,000 NTD per month; later, by increasing update frequency, the combined income from ad revenue, sponsorships, and columns gradually approached the level of a general office worker. These data remind us that a channel being seen and a channel sustaining a livelihood are never the same thing. 1
She did not suddenly switch to book reviews because film reviews became ineffective. Between film reviews, book reviews, and social issue videos, there has always been a common method: taking materials originally scattered in works, news, or books, and rearranging them into a path that audiences can follow. Her work is not to digest all complexity for the audience, but first to demonstrate how to approach complexity.
In 2017, an article in Kan Magazine, published by the Taipei City Employment Service Office, recorded her views on video production. She pointed out that articles can accommodate complex information, while videos are affected by sound, expression, speed, and length. She even made low-production-quality chat videos to prove that boosting traffic is not difficult, but that was not the content she wanted to make. 3
This sentence has a stubbornness that does not fit platform logic. She knows traffic can be designed, but refuses to equate "can boost" directly with "worth leaving behind." What she truly wanted to preserve was book reviews, film reviews, and works that matched her inner self.
Knowledge Begins to Be Priced
Starting in 2016, Jiong Storytelling became a public case of subscription crowdfunding. The Economist Taiwan recorded that after the project launched on PressPlay, it raised 200,000 NTD per month within four hours, later exceeding 400,000 NTD per month. An article reprinted by the Taipei City Employment Service Office recorded that the subscription amount later exceeded 430,000 NTD per month, with over 1,600 subscribers. 1 3
These amounts are not her monthly salary, nor do they mean every yuan can be directly used for living. Subscription plans also have platform commissions, rewards, production costs, and fulfillment time. The Economist Taiwan’s report also noted that publishing houses provided book lists and sponsorship of several thousand NTD per episode, leading some to question whether this constitutes sponsorship. Jiong Xing Ren stated that the program’s purpose is to promote reading, and book selection still follows the principle of what she truly likes. 1
Here appeared a key change in Taiwan’s early creator economy. Audiences not only supported content with views, but also began using subscription amounts to express "I hope this program continues to exist." This money buys not a book, but the creator’s time to continue reading, organizing, and explaining.
However, payment also brings commitments. When creators accept subscriptions, they must consider whether content is open to the public or specially produced for a group of sponsors. A personal analysis discussing subscription crowdfunding in 2018 pointed out that Jiong Xing Ren stopping the subscription system may not necessarily be project failure, but rather that she found subscription commitments gradually limiting the flexibility of other creations. This article explicitly marks the content as the author’s personal deduction, so it can only serve as external observation, not impersonate Jiong Xing Ren’s own statements. 5
📝 Curator’s Note: "Taiwan starts paying for knowledge" is not a sentence containing only joy. Payment keeps creators alive, but also demands more from them. Jiong Xing Ren’s importance lies in keeping this contradiction on the table, rather than only showing screenshots of successful crowdfunding.
How Family Confessions Become Public Language
Jiong Xing Ren’s most discussed content is not all books and movies. After the 2014 Zheng Jie incident, she produced Today No More Jokes, Let's Talk About Love, sharing her experiences of parents’ divorce, family migration, and growing up in loneliness. The Reporter recorded that this video received a large response, and many audiences brought their own family issues into the comments and responses. 6
The Reporter’s interview wrote that when she was seven, she moved to Shenzhen with her father, moving between different cities and families thereafter. At 31, she had moved over 20 times. She described herself as always an outsider wherever she was; this experience of unstable belonging later became the vocabulary through which she understood loneliness, family, and gender temperament. 6
These contents belong to her self-narration in interviews and works; they cannot be used by external authors to diagnose her, nor can family trauma be directly inferred as creative talent. A more reliable reading is: she chose to organize private experiences into public language, giving audiences the opportunity to discuss things that were originally difficult to say.
An interview with Women迷 (Women’s迷) reprinted in Commonweal Magazine records her saying: "What I was raised to be is not something I can decide. But what kind of person I want to be, I can." This sentence is not a conclusion of completed healing, but a declaration of slowly taking back the initiative in life. 7
Her family story is therefore not merely material for "suffering leads to success." Writing it as such would erase her long-term labor of reading, writing, researching, filming, and communicating with audiences. Suffering can explain why she cares about empathy, but is insufficient to explain why she can continue to produce content.
"Success" Cannot Be Calculated Solely by Income
Another special article from Women迷 (Women’s迷), written by Jiong Xing Ren herself, discusses the path of internet celebrities. She pointed out that, like other workers, internet creators must first provide value to the market and rely on long-term accumulation to be seen. She also reminded that many videos under five minutes may take over ten hours to produce; without traffic, creative results may very well be handed to audiences for free. 8
She spoke of passion in an unromantic way: things you love are those you are still willing to do even carrying a tired body and receiving no pay. This is not encouraging indefinite free labor, but pointing out that those who can truly survive the early creative phase usually have an internal reason not entirely determined by traffic. 8
She also does not define success as earning the most money. In a Women迷 interview, she said she is closer to "doing what I like," but still admitted she is far from the ideal state of maintaining harmonious relationships with those around her. This tone, not rushing to package herself as a successful person, allows her story to retain unfinished parts. 2
Her later self-narration page describes her as a creator simultaneously operating YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Podcast, and newsletters, also reviewing Jiong Storytelling subscription crowdfunding and long-term career transformation. Such first-hand pages are suitable for understanding how she describes herself, but the subscription numbers, income, and career achievements therein should still be cross-read with media reports. 9
From Camera Back to Text
Eslin Online publishing data shows that Yu Yue temporarily left the internet and public eye in 2019; when she restarted in 2023, she chose text rather than video as the entrance. She organized this shift into Boundless Textual Power, discussing writing, platform revenue sharing, subscription systems, and content monetization. This later direction also connects with her early blog experience: when video is no longer the only form of work, text once again becomes the common foundation for research, thinking, and income. 9
The career experience listed on her personal About page, from advertising art editor, social media planner, publisher, website engineer to film review columnist, shows that "Jiong Xing Ren" was never just a role in front of the camera. She also continued to operate Podcasts and newsletters, placing books, society, and market perspectives back into longer textual contexts. 9
This shift is worth adding to her early internet celebrity story. If only looking at the YouTube period, Jiong Xing Ren seems like a linear figure moving from film reviews to storytelling. Bringing in the later textual work reveals that she has actually been testing the same question: how to organize complex knowledge into her own language, and then find people willing to read or listen long-term.
The Problem Left by a Beard
What Jiong Xing Ren represents is not just a name for one of Taiwan’s early YouTubers. She brought the long-form reading of the blog era into YouTube’s short-video rhythm, and turned audience viewing into subscription support. She did not turn knowledge into a cold lecture note, but allowed film reviews, book reviews, family confessions, and life chats to share the same voice.
This voice is sometimes sharp, sometimes tired, sometimes uncertain. It does not fit the imagination that "internet celebrities must always be positive," but thereby allows audiences to see the creator also exploring: how to talk about books without pretending to understand, how to accept sponsorships without letting content lose meaning, how to accept sponsorship without locking oneself into commitments.
As for the authorization and platform controversies she later involved in, Sanli News Network once reported an article appearing on a Chinese platform with the phrase "from Chinese Taiwan." Jiong Xing Ren clarified that the article was issued by the MCN company handling work authorization, without discussion with her before publishing. This event is suitable for understanding that when creators hand works to platforms or companies to handle, they may lose control over textual context. The netizens’ digging and family inference in the report should not be taken as the factual basis of this article. 10
📝 Curator’s Note: If only looking at her crowdfunding amounts, Jiong Xing Ren looks like a successful commercial case. If only looking at her family story, she would be reduced to a wounded person. Putting both back into the creative process reveals the true Taiwanese characteristic: how a person gradually explores "what I can rely on to survive, without wanting to lose what."
Her fake beard is no longer just a prop to hide braces. It reminds people that online recognizability can start from a very small gap. What truly remains is not the beard itself, but her willingness to continuously hand over reading, questions, and incomplete answers for the audience to check.
Further Reading
- Taiwan YouTuber Industry and Culture, to understand the Taiwanese online audio-video environment in which Jiong Xing Ren is situated.
- Jiu Jiu Xie, to compare another Taiwanese creator who emerged from knowledge organization and independent media work.
References
- The Economist Taiwan: 35K Office Workers Earn 400k Monthly from Niche Online Storytelling; Why Did the Taiwanese Oprah "Jiong Xing Ren" Go Viral? — 2017 profile report, verifying Jiong Xing Ren’s film review starting point, origin of the fake beard, YouTube income, PressPlay subscription amounts, and Jiong Storytelling production methods.↩23456
- Women迷 (Women’s迷): I Am an Elderly YouTuber! Interview with Jiong Xing Ren: "The Meaning of Life Is to Pursue Happiness" — 2017 profile interview, verifying her reading positioning, channel segments, self-narration on family and gender temperament, and how she understands success.↩2345
- Taipei City Employment Service Office: Watch Knowledge-Based YouTuber Jiong Xing Ren "Speak" — 2017 reprint of Kan Magazine article, verifying blog and RSS experience, early video numbers, traffic vs. content choices, and the career context of subscription crowdfunding.↩23
- Parent-Child World: Jiong Xing Ren: I Want to Find People in Books Worse Off Than Myself — 2017 profile article, verifying her childhood reading, family reading memories, and how reading became the background for later creation.↩
- Medium: Briefly Discussing Subscription Crowdfunding (Part 1): How to Understand "Jiong Xing Ren Stopping Subscription System"? — 2018 personal analysis article. The article explicitly distinguishes author deduction from the subject’s statements; this article uses it only to understand external discussions on subscription systems and creative autonomy.↩
- The Reporter: Jiong Xing Ren Interview — Wounds of the Foreign Land, Silent Reconciliation — 2017 in-depth profile interview, verifying her family migration, early channel scale, Today No More Jokes, Let's Talk About Love, and scenes of reconciliation. Family and mental health content are limited to the subject’s self-narration and reporting scope.↩2
- Commonweal Magazine: Internet Celebrities Don’t Necessarily Have to Please; Elderly YouTuber Jiong Xing Ren: Will Be Willful Even Without Money — 2018 profile report, serving as the publication page for the Women迷 interview, verifying direct quotes on her storytelling stance, reading, gender temperament, family experience, and creative autonomy.↩
- Women迷 (Women’s迷): [Jiong Xing Ren Special Article] The Path of Internet Celebrities Is Hard; Without True Heart, One Cannot Survive — 2017 special article written by Jiong Xing Ren, verifying her first-person perspectives on internet creation value, production time, traffic, and passion.↩2
- Jiong Jiong’s Text and Capitalism: About — Jiong Xing Ren’s own self-narration page, listing her channels, newsletters, career, and subscription crowdfunding review. This article uses it only for self-positioning and current status supplementation; commercial numbers still rely on cross-reading with contemporary media reports. The later textual shift in the article also references the author and content introduction at Eslin Online Boundless Textual Power Publication Details Page, but this product page is not counted in the total number of footnotes for this article’s details.↩23
- Sanli News Network: Jiong Xing Ren "From Chinese Taiwan" Mocked; Netizens Dig Up Stepmother’s Wild Identity — 2018 event report, verifying the Chinese platform article controversy and Jiong Xing Ren’s clarification on MCN authorization publishing. This article does not adopt the netizens’ digging and family inference therein, which are not independently verified.↩