Shocking Truth About China Told by an American | Cyrus Janssen

meanwhile I live in China and you live in a society that has zero gun crime you can go out in a major city like Shanghai 25 30 million people go out at 2: in the morning you know have a nice watch on have cash on you have you know wear nice clothes no one's going to bother you NE Sarah Jens an American who lived in mainland China for 7 years and Hong Kong for 3 years he runs a YouTube channel with over 700k subscribers focused on China in our chat cus shared the biggest misconceptions about

China in the US China China China the future of Chinese American relations and what is like living in China as an American I'm a chernov your Insider to exper life Z what do you think the biggest misconceptions about China let's say in the US the biggest misconceptions would be that China is a place with no freedom I think many people have a very hard time understanding what China is really like the most often question that I get asked is Cyrus what's China like and my my standard response is I'll tell you but you probably won't

believe me and i' say that because it's unlike anything that you can imagine and and for example I'll give you another another example here this summer I took my wife and my three children we went back to China we traveled for two months throughout China and it was an amazing time because my daughters ate I have twin 5-year-old boys and it was their first time uh back in China for a long time and they just couldn't believe it and we were sharing videos on Instagram with our friends back in in America and no one could

believe like this is China like this this is what China looks like the roads are this clean the cities are this good the malls are this well the meals are this great the food is this fresh the people are this friendly I can't imagine that this is what China is like and for many people this is a sad thing is that I think for most Americans their their conception of China is still stuck in 1970 it's still chairman Mouse suits bicycles poor country underdeveloped communism no Freedom you know totalitarian Society this is what the stereotypes

about China are but I said you know I lived in China for 10 years there's not really many freedoms that I didn't have I there's not really a huge difference between the United States and China you could say maybe okay maybe gun laws okay in America you have the right Second Amendment we have the right to own a gun I'm not an American that owns a gun I I'm not a big fan of guns it's not my thing um meanwhile I live in China and you live in a society that has zero gun crime zero

gun crime right you can go out in you know you can go out in a major city like Shanghai 25 30 million people go out at 2:00 in 2: in the morning you know have a nice watch on have them have cash on you have you know wear nice clothes no one's going to bother you you're not going to get jumped you're not going to get robbed you're not going to get shot you know there's a lot of amazing things about that and that's kind of what I try to do I try to say there's

always nuances that you need to understand about China that are very different and you won't understand that until you physically go there and experience it but I have yet to meet somebody that has physically gone to China and not come away with a very different perception than what the media is presenting to you on a daily basis what I really enjoyed about being in China in the early days is just the Curiosity of Chinese people that very much still exist today you know when you're Foreigner in China the Chinese are very curious about you they

want to know about your country where you're from how is life um they're extremely friendly I remember in my first couple months I I mean I couldn't speak any Chinese I had zero zero knowledge of the Chinese language but people you know they would see me with you know Maps again back in the day you know no phones I mean I'd have a map I'm trying to find my way and people would come out and talk to me they'd help me and they would help me find my hotel they would help me find a restaurant

and you know young children would come up and their parents would encourage them to hey here's a foreigner speak Chinese or speak English with him and it was just a I I immediately felt very welcome there I I I knew that I was a guest in China but I respected them I respected the culture and I just had a a very overwhelming curiosity I wanted to learn everything I could about China about the culture the people and I just really from day one I just embraced it I just thought wow this is amazing I'm literally

an American living in China this is the coolest thing ever it's a big shift right tremendous shift Florida to China from very big especially from the United States because many people in the US even moving within the United States is a big deal I remember my friends at the time you know they were said oh I'm I'm from Florida but I just got a job opportunity in Texas I'm I'm so nervous to go to Texas I don't know what Texas is going to be like and I always thought well I mean it's more or less

the same it's not that different uh but to go to China I mean it's a complete 180 everything's different than what you grew up with did you know anything about China before going you know I didn't know anything about China but what was I knew was that China was growing again this was Circa 2007 so this was about 17 years ago at that point China's economy was growing very rapidly and the only thing that I knew about China was that China is growing China is going to be a big opportunity and the thing that interested

me was I figured if I could go to China and if I could learn to speak Chinese I think that this could open up so many doors for my future and that would be essentially like getting a master's degree you know I didn't I don't have a master's degree but when I graduated University I said that'll be my Master's Degree I'm going to go to China learn Chinese and you know see what opportunities there are in the world and then you learned Mandarin I did I did so I really committed myself to learning Mandarin because

I I figured that really would be my ticket that would be the key thing and you know the most important thing I I think when you learn another language especially as an expat it it really it helps establish yourself in that country you know it really shows local people okay this guy has committed himself to really being here you know I I I remember a lot of expats they would come to China and they say hey I'm going to come on a very wealthy expat contract I'm going to make as much money as I can

for two years and then I'm getting the hell out of here cuz I don't want to be here long term and I always thought that's such a short-sighted uh Viewpoint I wanted to really experience China and if you don't understand that language and you don't need to be fluent but you need to if you can even understand a few words and at least have some interaction it brings a very different perspective to your journey and then of course if you really want to live there long term being able to speak Chinese and handle your daily

business as far as paying bills you know buying real estate investing um you know just daily life I mean Chinese became my working Language by about my third year in China where every day I'd go to work and I'd speak Chinese 8 to 12 hours a day and it was my working language for many years my daughter speaks Chinese but she's seven yeah and I'm not sure about the level they at school they say that she's fine for as not native speaker in Chinese but I I cannot like any someone to actually like check on

her like if she really speaks learning Chinese has been a superpower for me I mean it really has opened up a tremendous amount of doors and I think for example I'll give you a great example and this is for anybody watching this is I think in life when you can take two skills and pair them together that that really becomes a very very attractive thing let me give you an example so my first job in China I was actually a golf professional so when I when I was at University in Florida I played golf I

played at a very high level and so I had an opportunity to become a golf coach in China so I have the golf knowledge so you know I I that's that's an advanced skill but now pair that with being able to speak Chinese now there's not many people especially in 2007 2008 there was not many foreigners in China that could teach golf at a high level and then also speak Chinese and so all of a sudden now I'm one of a handful of people in all of China that has that skill set yeah and so

with it by my second year in China I became the big busiest golf coach at our facility and I had so many students that would come because I was American I could speak Chinese and I knew how to teach Golf and so that became a superpower for me and that really also led to me getting my next job because I then after two years at working at a Golf Academy I was 25 years old and I had the opportunity to become the head golf professional at China's number one private club now for some comparison maybe

for those of you that don't understand golf the head pro is a very high position in the industry in Western countries you know that would be something that you would need to work maybe 10 15 years oh you know to you have to work to get to that level so that would be really maybe maybe you're 35 to 40 years old you would get the opportunity to have that job and only after 10 to 15 years of very hard work but in China you're able to accelerate your career much faster so after 2 years and

at the age of 25 I was given the opportunity to become the head golf professional at China's number one golf course and the sole reason that I got that job was because I could speak Chinese and the general manager at the time was from Singapore and he said Cyrus you know we're speaking in English and he said I heard that you can speak Chinese if you can speak Chinese with me I'll give you this job and so I said you know I said no problem let's let's speak Chinese then and so we spoke Chinese for

about five six minutes and he said wow you're you're really confident he's like why do you think that you can do this job and I said look I've been I've been preparing for this moment I've I've been learning Chinese every day and I was relentless in the early days I mean I was I mean again I was 23 years old I mean I'd be Friday nights I would be in my apartment reading books on Chinese I would then go out in the morning and I would talk to the you know I'd go to the grocery

store and buy my groceries and I'd ask everybody how do you say this I'd walk down the streets constantly practicing you know my spoken Chinese and it was it became a hobby but it also was a passion you know I I really want to be able to speak really good Chinese I really want to do this job yeah and and that's how it opened the door and again it it got me my next job and it's gotten me other business opportunities and it's opened many doors Simply Be by learning a language I think the majority

of xbots they go to the places like Thailand or Singapore if you like have highly paid job or you go to Thailand or even Malaysia here you'll be you can totally live in a bubble in a very Comfort bubble and you can make friends with locals as well but you don't really need to learn the language and you will be perceived as the Foreigner and it's fine people are like so many foreigners let's say Liv in Bangkok so you'll be fine there yeah and for China is different you kind of have to be integrated yeah

I I mean there's definitely some expats that you know come live in Shanghai and Beijing and and these very big expat communities and and don't speak Chinese but I think you fail to understand a very important element of the culture and I think there's there's a really famous Nelson Mandela quote that I love is when you speak to a man in a language that he understands you know it goes to his head but if you speak to a man in his in his native tongue it goes to his heart and so you know when you

really are able to communicate with the Chinese and and you you start understanding you know there's a there's a phrase in in Chinese that's uh you know which means like my heart's not comfortable and and it's it's an interesting phrase because for example you know I remember when I bought my apartment in Shanghai you know we were negotiating with the um you know with the with the seller and I was like yeah I want to offer you this price and he's just like wow it's like the price is too low my my heart's not feeling

good on this and you know you wouldn't understand like what that means unless you understand Chinese and I was just like all right like I I get it like syy I'm like I'm like well let's let's let's negotiate the price what about this price you know I think this is still a fair price for you but you know I need a little bit of a discount you know Sy you know it's like is your heart comfortable now it's like okay syy let's do the deal you know so it it was I remember that negotiation and

I'm like that's such a if you're Translating that you know I can tell you okay my heart's comfortable it doesn't really translate as well that's the direct translation in English but it kind of has a different meaning in Chinese and so when you can kind of understand that now I I I made the deal and I was and then I you know kind of put my hand around him I'm like oh you know like my my heart's comfortable too now right like you're happy I'm happy you know you're going to give me a blessing of

this house and you know we're both walking away from a good deal so I remember that very distinctly that you know example of buying a house and you know having that that that that cultural element involved in that as well what was the attitude towards you as an American like from Chinese people in the 17 years that I've been traveling to China even right now in 2024 I have experienced nothing nothing but positive energy positive comments from every single Chinese person I've ever met I've never had a single bad experience and I think what's so

so fascinating is that you know there's actually a little bit of an advantage to being American I remember for example when I was that golf coach at the Academy you know we had somebody from Scotland Canada uh New Zealand China and America I would get lessons people would come in and say oh look at all of these flags I want the American guy yeah now I wasn't maybe the best coach but people wanted the American they wanted me so I had an advantage of just being American and I remember people they wanted to they you

know people were always fascinated um to to under to learn more about your country and the interesting thing is is that Chinese people know much more about America than Americans know about China so you know their knowledge even I mean go into a a taxi in shangai and start speaking with the driver you'll be and if you tell him I'm from America you'll be amazed at what he knows for example I mean we're less than 40 days from the US election he'd be like oh you know uh we've got you know Donald Trump or Kamala

I've been watching your election what's your thoughts on that and I mean they're right up to speed they know exactly what's going on they they they're following world events they're much more knowledgeable about the world around them much more than Americans are growing in the US in Florida how's your perception towards your country change towards the us or maybe Americans or you as an American change Through The Years sure I mean I think it's a very good question because in America you have two types of people you have the vast majority of people have never

left the United States and vast majority of Americans don't have a passport and unfortunately they live in a bubble they live in a bubble because they don't understand the world around them give an example we share a 4,000 mile border with Canada and my wife is Canadian we lived in Canada for 5 years I'm very you know I'm a naturalized Canadian citizen as well uh have a great passion for Canada it's a great country what's incredible is that most Americans could not name the capital of Canada okay the capital is Ottawa most ask most Americans

tell you it's Toronto because they have no knowledge of anything in Canada we we learn nothing about Canada our closest trading partner you know we in can Canada we always look at the United States as a bigger brother yeah I mean we have an amazing relationship between the United States and Canada but growing up in America we learn nothing about Canada meanwhile in Canada everybody learns a lot about the United States because it's the big big country just to the south of you so you have Americans that have never left the country that know very

little about outside of America and then you have Americans like myself who've had the opportunity to go abroad and again that you know having a German mother and going abroad going to Europe every summer spending time learning other languages other cultures that fundamentally shifted my mind and how I look at things and I don't think you can really understand your home country until you leave and you look at it from the outside looking in that is a tremendous thing now you can do that on a holiday you can get a little bit of perspective but

I think the Ultimate Experience is if you can be an expat and if you can at least live abroad for at least a year just to just to get to understand what life is really like in a different country because once you once you become an expat you know you're paying your electric bill you have to find a place to rent or buy you have to you know go to the hospital you have to figure out how do you function in a society as opposed to just staying a week in a nice hotel on a

beach yeah so I think once you go abroad you can look at it in a very different light and I think the United States what I've seen is that unfortunately our reputation on the international stage is declining I think it's declining very significantly and unfortunately most Americans don't realize that because again the majority live in a bubble they live in a bubble and they're not they don't know what's going on outside of the United States in their mind America is the best country in the world why would I leave why would I get a passport

but you don't know what you don't know I mean if you you know how can I tell you that you know we're filming this live in quore it's a world-class City you know worldclass hotels at a amazing rate I mean it's uh you know you don't know these things until you travel and experience that so I think for if any Americans are watching this and you've not had the chance to travel or you know go abroad I mean my number one piece of advice for every Young American hey like me 23 years old take that

chance go live abroad you have nothing to lose and it will fundamentally change everything for the rest of your life how was the relationships between the US and China bu down actually I remember very well because I was I arrived in China in January 2007 and if you remember in 2008 actually Beijing hosted the Olympics and that was an amazing time uh you know I was there on the ground in Beijing it was it was an incredible time for China that was really China's coming out party that was really China announcing to the world we

have arrived our economy is booming the Chinese are here and I never forget George Bush who was president at the time he flew to Beijing and he was in the stands at the Olympics cheering on Michael Phelps in the swimming pool and it was such an iconic scene because you see him surrounded by USA flags Chinese people around him as well and you just could never imagine a US president doing that today in 2024 given the tension between us and China but in 2008 it was a different time tensions between the US and China were

relatively low there was a lot of trade going on between there was a tremendous amount of business and it really was a very prosperous time for both countries trade is still going but the relationships quite sour right now yeah it's it's tough to see I mean you know China and the United States are linked at the hip their economies are so intertwined many people don't realize how important China is to the United States economy and just to the to how Americans live their average life U without China we couldn't function and so the trade still

goes on although the tensions have ramped up significantly since that time do you think it will improve at some point what's your like prediction for the next 5 10 years as far as tensions I think that unfortunately if I had to make a prediction I think that they're going to increase I think that we're going to see more tensions between the United States and China but we're going to see this increase because there's a fundamental problem happening in the United States where you know we are experiencing a very difficult time politically in the United States

the US democracy has never been weaker than at this moment right now so our government has a tremendous amount of internal problems and the problem right now is that we're distracted by other countries for example you'll often hear many US politicians say the greatest threat to the future of the United States is China but in reality it's nothing to do with China everything is by looking in the mirror the biggest threat to the United States is the United States itself and they need to figure out you know what what do we want our politics to

look like how do we fix our own house and on the flip side you know China has many problems as well you know the Chinese economy here in 2024 is very different than when I was in China in 2013 2014 you know that that that economy has matured a lot you know right now we're seeing for example record high youth unemployment we're seeing a real estate market that has mature ured you know again when I bought my apartment in 2009 I sold that then in 2015 that was a period of rapid growth I made about

400% profit on that investment only because of timing because at that time China's real estate industry was was booming yeah but now it's very matured right the the market is very matured and and and China's economy is becoming more mature as well so I think that what you're going to see between the United States and China is you're going to see China continuing its influence around the world for example when we look at Africa we look at other countries in Asia many of them are shifting towards China I think that the United States is going

to you know continue wanting to sanction China wanting to impose trade tariffs wanting to limit Chinese technology and we're going to see this continuous battle for the next few years it's it's not going to go down unfortunately are you like overall you positive about the future of the world or negative or neutral an optimist I'm always an optimist so I will always say that that I'm I'm I'm positive about the future of the world and I always say this is I I don't believe that the United States and China will get involved in a confrontation

I don't believe that they will go to war because I don't think many people understand this is that if the United States and China get involved in a hot war that is the end of the economy that is the end of the world all right that literally will wreck every stock market all of the industries I mean we're talking absolute chaos for the entire Globe no country will be unscathed from that wrath if the United States and China get into a hot War I do think that both sides understand that now there's going to be

both sides are going to flex muscles they're both going to say things um you know for example the United States government right now is heavily investing in Australia building US military bases adding supplies there in preparation for a war with China they're actively doing that right now but I don't think that you know that it's going to come to that I do believe in humanity I do believe that at the end of the day that cooler heads will prevail and that peace will happen I I do believe that so if China will take Taiwan at

some point there will be no hot response from yeah I mean this is the question right this is the question is what Taiwan right that is the whole question that really encompasses the entire United States China relationship and you go back to an earlier question you asked me how was the US China relationship in 20072 2008 it was very good because Taiwan was not an issue that that point okay Taiwan was no Factor at all between the United States and China so there's a direct correlation once Taiwan once escalations continue with Taiwan then that's when

the United States and China relationship will start to deteriorate but it starts a lot with for example our media you know for example if you watch news programs you know it'll say tensions are are increasing over Taiwan uh an area which China believes is part of its own territory now the way that the news says that that's incorrect because it's not only China that says that taiwan's part of China it's actually the United States government it's actually the vast majority of countries around the world every Western Country in around the world you know agrees with

that you know that Taiwan is part of China it's a fundamental belief go ask any US government official that's the official stance we believe in the one China policy and the one China policy has fundamentally guided the US China relationship for the past 50 years now I'll share my thoughts on will China invade Taiwan I think that they will not I'm predicting that they will not and there's a few reasons for that number one is that you have to remember is that Chinese people look at Taiwan as their brothers okay this is not an independent

country this is not somewhere else they speak the same language okay the between the fuan province which is the closest province across the straight to Taiwan you know this is these are brothers these are families that are separated by you know that they travel back and forth you know many people come over from Taiwan many people go from China to Taiwan this is a Brotherhood this is this is family so I don't think you're going to see China just all of a sudden go in militari and start killing civilians start bombing you know the life

in Taiwan the other thing is is that it would fundamentally erase everything that China's government has achieved in the past 50 years yeah that's something that really needs to be said because in the past 50 years we have not seen a country rise like China 50 years ago China was the biggest country in the world in terms of population and it was also the poorest that's not a good fact right it the biggest population and the poorest country and over the past 50 years you have to give credit where credits due this is not me

singing the Praises of the Chinese government nor isn't me supporting the Chinese government I'm very neutral you can hate China's government or you can love it that's your opinion but what you can't argue is the simple facts is that over the past 50 years China has transformed itself okay 700 million people have been lifted out of poverty over the last 30 years 80% of the world's poverty alleviation has come directly from China in fact if you if you remove China's efforts to Poverty alleviation we would be in a negative state right the world would have

not actually increased we would have gotten more poor if it weren't for China these are the simple facts and I I think when you look at China is that they have basically sold this idea to the Chinese people that said look we are going to be a onep party State we have this direction we have this this this goal that we're going to move towards and as if you go along with that you're going to experience this economic success which has been the case for the last 50 years again like I mentioned there's certainly economic

challenges right now but every mature country goes through that I'm reminded of my home country the United States 2008 massive financial crisis tremendous amount of turmoil in our markets uh retirement accounts real estate for over 2 years so every country goes through those you know periods where there's you know corrections but I think what is very difficult is that I I just think if China were to invade Taiwan it would really screw that entire thing up and I just don't think that's a risk that they're willing to take however I will preface this is that

it really is the ball is in the United States court and the reason I say that is that if the United States continues to recognize the one China policy I don't think that there's going to be an issue but if you get some Republicans that are very very anti-china many Republicans have said we need to shift away from strategic ambiguity to strategic Clarity we need to call Taiwan an independent country we need to invite them into the United Nations we need to recognize them as an independent state and I don't care what China says if

you have a US politicians moving in that direction and then Taiwan signs on to that then there will be a hot War because China will go to war to defend that country people need to understand taian is the fundamental it's the Cornerstone of China's foreign policy it is the single most important thing when Henry Kissinger went to China he had an entire list of things to to speak with joen li okay the Chinese premier of the time joen Li had one you want a relationship with us it starts with Taiwan that's the fundamental thing you

don't agree to that the entire deal's off the table that is our red line that is our deal breaker so we agreed to it we agreed to it and again it's been the fundamental principle guiding us China relations for the past 50 years so if you see us politicians shift and all of a sudden you say you know what let's imagine Kamala Harris for example hey day one I'm the new US president and guess what we are now recognizing Taiwan as an independent country and we are putting him in the United Nations and there's nothing

China can do about that you see escalation like that from the United States China 100% will respond so that's why I say it really is the ball is in the United States Court as long as we figure out a way to to maintain this peace in Taiwan I think that there will be peace you mentioned about ambiguity versus The Clarity yeah I think what's the cultural difference in the US Americans are tend to be like very clear with their messages and Asia approach is a bit different you can be in a gray Zone and it's

fine so I think it's also like the the mindset is different right even on the level of like business communication right I I read studies about it so Americans give you a lot of context they never give you like oh you need to figure out yourself I give you all the context and in China no you need to understand the context correct yeah 100% correct High contact and low context yeah absolutely the idea of your channel is to build Bridges uh between China and and US idea of my channel is actually I started with also

like Building Bridges idea but between locals and foreigners living in Singapore first and then we we expand it to different other countries do you think your channel actually helps to oh you see the science that channel helps to improve the relations or people change their opinions let's say American change their opinions about China absolutely I mean I think that's that's one of the most rewarding things about running a YouTube channel and speaking objectively about this is I've met a countless number of I've met a lot of fans I mean I've I've when I was living

in Vancouver Canada for example there's a tremendous Chinese Community um I would get a tremendous amount of Chinese Canadians many of them that had never been to China they know they're they're ethnically Chinese but they you know grew up in Vancouver Canada but they say hey we watch your we watch your YouTube channel you know thank you for speaking out for China thank you for speaking out for Chinese people thank you for promoting peace thank you for being you know a peace Advocate um I remember I was in Shanghai for a business trip last summer

and I was checking into the hotel and an American man walked you know a foreigner walked by me and he stopped and then he turned over and he said Cyrus you're Cyrus Janson I watch your YouTube channel thanks for what you do yeah you know I'm I'm here on this business trip in China because I watch your YouTube channel so I've had you know amazing experiences like that I mean we're here in Malaysia for The Nomad capitalist event I had fans you know reach out to me yesterday in person come up hey I watch your

YouTube channel thank you for what you do and so I think what's interesting is what we try to do is we try to provide the Nuance you know some of my most successful videos is me simply walking around China you know just showing you I was in Guang Joe for example and I said I'm here next to the Sacred Heart Cathedral it's one of the oldest cathedrals in China and Incredibly you know there's Mass held here at this Catholic Cathedral four times a day in English Mandarin Korean and Cantonese you know and and a lot

of people were like I just never would even imagine that a church could exist in China and I said well not only does it exist but you have four different languages you can attend mass in if if up to you so it's just more about providing that context and trying to help you understand I think the other point Max I want to say is I since I've I've now relocated back to the United states to be closer with my parents and my family and I was a little bit worried because I wondered what Americans would

perceive of when I tell them hey I'm a YouTuber here's my Channel about China and in the two years that I've been back in the United States I've received nothing but positive feedback I've received even so many parents at my school who have said we don't know anything about China we just think it's bad because that's what our media tells me but if you guys you live there for 10 years like you have a whole YouTube channel about it like I I'll watch some of your videos I'd love to learn more about this I think

there's a fundamental shift happening in China right now or I should say not in China but around the world where people are changing their perceptions about China and social media is a big part of that you know you've seen earlier this year in the last 6 months specifically China has opened up Visa free tourism so for many many Europeans many in the EU they're now Visa free to China Australia New Zealand Visa free to China and as a result many of these YouTube travel vloggers are coming to China for the first time and they're showing

their experience and so we've seen a plethora of new videos hit the YouTube Market all of them being my first 24 hours in China not what I expected and everyone sharing their thoughts and overwhelming again it goes back to that principle that if you actually spend time in China and experience it it's very different than what you than what you've heard about and so that's my biggest my biggest thing is you know you cannot hate China unless you have at least given it a try you have to come and experience it and I'm sure you'll

walk away with a very different opinion and point of view by doing so from the business standpoint what YouTube channel your YouTube channel means for your business right now it's the like the platform that kind of generates your attention and leads and yeah absolutely I mean YouTube for me has transformed into very much a business I mean we we run this full-time it is uh it's been an incredible opportunity for me to you know leverage into many different um speaking engagements many different business opportunities so in the past 12 months alone I've been to Shanghai

I've been to Istanbul Turkey I've um you know been um here here in Malaysia this week I've um actually next month I'm going to aeran uh going to be meeting with the U the United Nations is doing a big climate change conference there we're going to be going there to cover that I'm going to Abu Dhabi at the end of the year uh talking about Chinese investment and projects there so there's it's been it's basically become a great pipeline to you know speaking engagements to business opportunities and again what I always say is it's I

really started this YouTube channel I had a secondary goal I thought if I could make a YouTube channel about China it could probably keep my door open to the country and I guarantee you that maybe at one point I'm going to get invited to go back to China that was my goal when I first started when I had zero subscribers I had this idea I I if I if I Le if I can figure out this YouTube game I could probably get like a deal to go back to China and make videos and Last Summer

the dream became a reality I had a Norwegian Factory owner in China reach out to me and say Cyrus We want you to come to our Factory here in China it's it's on the outskirts of wooi and we want you to make a video showing our textile Factory to the world and I was so excited because I said wow this is incredible I have an opportunity to go back to China I filmed that video and that video has done almost a million views now and it's it's like inside a Chinese Factory and that video has

been my it's probably my favorite video that I've ever made on my YouTube channel because it means something very special to me cuz I remember having zero subscribers and having this idea if I can start something about China this could become you know a YouTube channel that becomes my brand that becomes part of me becomes my business becomes my mission and it will always keep me connected back to China and I'm incredibly grateful for that and that's exactly what's happened and so I'm just uh I wake up every day extremely grateful for the opportunity um

I mean you know getting the chance to meet you Max I mean I've been a big fan of your channel I love the xat life obviously my decision to become an expat has fundamentally changed the entire trajectory of my life so I love your mission of of sharing that story and helping more people um you know around the world understand what it's like to be an xat so because of YouTube we're here together you know and that's exactly yeah we're speaking to this conference in qual lumur Malaysia because of our YouTube channels exactly 100% that's

why we're here that's why we're doing this interview right now because of YouTube so it's been a um in incredible blessing that just keeps getting better and I just am extremely grateful do you have a strategy behind growing your YouTube channel the biggest thing is is make good content you know is is the biggest the biggest thing is that I I what I what I want people to understand especially if you're a YouTuber and you're wanting to start out is that in the early stages it's about quantity not quality right when you're starting off at

zero you need to be producing a lot of videos you need to get better at your craft you need to be putting out a lot of videos to try to get some traction once you have an audience established you can then can refine your skills you can you can figure out what's been successful you know for example if you know if this video does very well because it's an American speaking about life in China well then double down go find another American that lives in China and do another interview right you kind of double down

on successful videos if it's worked once it'll probably work again uh if you have a thumbnail that's done very well do it again use it again so you'll often see is that we'll have you know in my channel if you go through all my videos you'll you'll see similarities between thumbnails because this video is done very well well we're going to CH we're just going to slightly modify it uh as far as the thumbnail and you know because it's already been proven to be successful so those are some of the best practices and I think

it's you know YouTube is about storytelling you know Max you do a great job because that's that's essentially your whole channel is telling stories interviews also you know what's I think what's interesting to note with with YouTube is that it shifts very much because for example this is a long form video you know this video is going to be almost probably an hour long by the time it gets published that those long form videos they weren't very popular maybe five years ago on YouTube but now it's very popular on YouTube along with the opposite of

that shorts you know which is under 60 seconds so you have a tremendous amount of opportunity on YouTube because you can create 60c shorts you know you can do 1hour interviews you can do three-hour podcasts you can do 4our live streams or you can do kind of what I do my bread and butter is a 10 to 15 minute dedicated video about a specific topic there's so many different options on YouTube and it's really about finding you know what works for you what's popular with your audience and for me it's really trying to tell these

interesting stories by the way if that's the message of Cyrus resonates with you don't forget to subscribe to Cyrus Channel subscribe to this channel max chov if you're watching for some reason without subscription some people do it's not polite to do it so better better subscribe actually always like tell because I have like this YouTube program so I was tell my students you should actually have just a your phone clip mic cost 50 bucks and the sunlight and that's it and the idea and the intention to share your thoughts with the world correct that's it

that's how you start on YouTube 100% 100% agree I mean I remember my very first YouTube video about China I I was very frustrated about this news report and I literally just sat down in my office and if you go back to my early Channel you can see it and it's you know the office is a mess I've got shirts on the floor you know the the camera quality is terrible but the message was there right it was like a six-minute video but the message was on point and so yeah I think there's a big

you you've really hit the nail on the head where there's a big Mis Mis conception oh I need to have thousands of you know dollars of equipment I need to have a studio I need to have this I need to have that no you could walk down the street with your camera and you can make a viral video if the content's good if you're really speaking to your audience and you're hitting on a pain point or you're talking about something that's of Interest people watch it yeah definitely we actually have this uh 3-day free Workshop

where we teach how to actually start grow and monetize YouTube channel we put the link in description basically we explain everything like what the uh what Niche can you go for and like the potential of monetization what equipment do you need how to be the algorithm how to G gain your first th000 subscribers so all the all the basic so we'll put the link in description if you sign up if you feel like it fantastic do you have some like very important principle in your life that you develop Through The Years let's say Liv in

China in the US like growing your career something really important maybe something that you will teach your kids when you get a bit older I think one one fundamental belief in that that really has guided me a lot is to be the change you want to see in the world it's very very simple be the change you want to see in the world so you know I I want to see a change between the US and China maybe I'm too small maybe I'm just one person maybe I can't really influence this but I'm going to

go try I'm going to try to be that change that I want to see in the world I don't believe that China is the greatest threat to the United States I'm going to that is something that I'm going to you know die on like I'm going to it's a fundamental belief of mine and it's something that I'm going to continue to preach on so when I talk to people when I speak in conferences around the world when I speak to you know anybody from the side of the street I mean I I went in in

a local pharmacy and there was two guys talking about China oh China's taking all our jobs you know there's no Manufacturing in America anymore because China you know China's the problem and I thought well you know what's interesting is that you know what phone do you have oh I have an iPhone oh okay well um you know if we bring that factory back to America okay we're going to have to hire Americans for about $50 to $60 an hour because they won't work for less than that in a factory they don't want to do that

job so are you willing to pay $5 to $6,000 for an iPhone5 to $6,000 that's insane well exactly that's why we need China because there's also a fundamental reason why apple is gone to China is because they have they're able to produce the best quality phones at the best prices and they do so because it's China China's doing that and as a result you know Apple's become one of the most valuable companies in the world so if anything just go buy Apple stock and enjoy you know enjoy that tangible you know benefits that is comes

from dealing with China but yeah I would say Be the Change you want to see in the world you know and and start and that really and even if you know again maybe I can't help the US China on this perspective but even if that means being a a leader in my local Community Helping more people if I can help one person better understand China and relieve those fears and just encourage them to maybe maybe go to China experience it then that'll be a success and i' and I've had many of that happen I had

one last example I had a mother who said her her daughter was 19 she was scared to go to China I said you need to go and experiencing it she was actually part of an orchestra and so she went and she toured through China she had so much fun she said I'm going to actually move to China and get a job there she's now in her second year and she said Cyrus because of your email I had the courage to go to China I went on an orchestra tour and now here I am two years

later and I'm now living in China and I'm living my exp dream all because of an email that you sent back to us stuff like that you know makes all the work that I do on YouTube worth everything what's the meaning of life for you I think the meaning of life just goes to the Golden Rule you know I mean I'm I'm a Believer in Jesus and I Think Jesus said you know do unto others as you would want them to do under you and I think is you know as I've traveled around the world

I've traveled to over 60 countries again I I have not found any country any religion any society any civilization anywhere on the planet that does not agree with that law right you treat others the way that you want to be treated and again I mean I've I've had people you know say negative comments towards me like how could you even go to China you know China's a communist country how could you even visit there and I say well because China's filled with 1.4 billion amazing people there right I mean just because I go to China

doesn't mean that I agree with everything that the government does there's a there's a very we need to separate that right just because I say I love China I love Chinese food I love Chinese cultureal of Chinese people doesn't mean that I'm you know I'm a communist right so I think honestly the the best thing for everybody is be the change you want to see in the world and treat others the way that you want to be treated [Music]