by alexandra giffney
photo courtesy of victor wan
What once started as a joke with a friend led Victor Wan, mainly known as medicalquackery, into a social media frenzy of Twitch and TikTok, gaining him a strong platform on social media that discusses normalizing the medical field and speaking up on mental health. Of course, in this interview, we had to discuss K-Pop at one point though.
What started first for you? Was it Twitch, YouTube, or TikTok?
Victor: “I think it was Twitch. Basically what started it all was my friend put me on Asian dating and mentioned that I stream on Twitch. I actually never streamed on Twitch before, but I was thinking of doing so. So when the post blew up my Twitch account gained a lot of traction, so I decided to start streaming there. I wasn’t really sure of what I was doing, but I just started to roll with it. I then ended up on study streaming, which works because being a medical student. Also with our fundraising stuff on there, it started by — well, I guess by the first few streams on Twitch I started to realize I’m not doing that much. Like I’m just studying. I’m living quite a privileged position, I get free money from the government to study. I realized a lot more things and people out there need this money more than I do. Like if I run out of money at the end of my two weeks before my next payment, that’s my fault because I rolled too many wishes on Genshin or I bought something irresponsible. And that’s my fault. Basically at that point I was like, ‘You know what, let’s divert that money to something that it’s actually needed.’”
Was making a platform to speak up on mental health and other issues an idea you ever saw for yourself? Or did it just start clicking as you posted?
V: “I think it mostly started on Twitch, with what I said before and the whole idea of things out there that are bigger than any one of us that we can help out with. I kind of brought that out to my Instagram and TikTok as well. In a sense — through social media I found a sense of myself and what I stand for. In regards to mental health and specifically mental health, it was a very personal decision.”
Being a med student and juggling a social media presence, how do you balance it all to make sure you stay physically and mentally healthy?
V: “I’ve just now, this last month, come close to being in some very deep waters with my university. I’m still trying to find that balance because I am quite new to this. This all started at the beginning of this year, so I’m still trying to get used to it. But I do remind myself that with medicine it is one of the commitments I do have to keep doing, so I have to put in the hours of studying. Everything else is optional and I can continue on when I feel like it. Like if I feel like streaming today, I’ll stream today. If I feel like making a TikTok, I’ll make a TikTok. I am currently on a bit of a hiatus from my TikTok because I need to focus on my finals. I have learned to also let loose and let lax a little bit more. I have realized that I don’t have to post like four TikToks every single day, man I was not in a good spot. I was spending like six hours a day making content and then another four to five hours of studying. That was not too good.”
It’s a learning process.
V: “The way I represent the medical profession online, if I say I’m a medical student I am representing medical professionals in general. The things I say do reflect on medical professionals. Part of the reason I wanted to start this whole social media project was, the way that I see it, I feel like doctors are losing touch with the general population. They’ve kind of isolated themselves as like we are perfect or incredibly smart individuals, where we don’t really need to relate to you and you can’t relate to us. I think that that has perpetuated with the older generational doctors, and nowadays in the society we are raised in everything is much more individualistic. It’s all about the patient and how the patient feels, everything comes together in the patient. You then start to get patients talking about how they trust their nurse more than the doctor, because their doctor doesn’t talk to them or relate to them. You start to lose that trust in doctors and it’s easy to see doctors as ‘not human’ in multiple senses. I guess part of the reason to start this project is to show that we are also human. We make jokes and we make mistakes. I also have bad days and I don’t feel like I need to keep up with a facade of affection. I actually got shut down by my university for making a joke. It was, ‘Things you can say during sex and in an ambulance.’ I thought it was funny, they didn’t find it funny. So in a sense I’m still trying to find that balance between humanizing medical professionals and maintaining professionalism that is acceptable. The medical profession is mostly run by conservative individuals, the people in power are mostly the older clinicians that are holding those views.”
Do you ever think, obviously one day those people will have to be out of power, but with a new generation in power that shift will occur?
V: “Oh for sure! I think that’s how most changes in the world come about. People that are too old to change their beliefs die out and those with more progressive beliefs take place. Speaking from a political point of view, looking at the statistics, the younger you are the more progressive you are as a doctor as well. So statistically speaking, if that continues we will have more progression.”
With our generation we are opening up to the idea and topic of males struggling with mental health. Do you ever see yourself as being that important factor to that subject of normalizing it?
V: “I think personally I never thought of it as being a male speaking up on that stuff, although now you mention it, I do agree it is normalizing male voices normalizing mental health. Oh, what do I have to say about that? Let me think... I’m not too sure what I have to say about that. I guess one thing to note is that most of my viewer base is female according to my statistics. But you can make the argument that I am in some sense an influencer/online figure and normalizing it in general is a good idea. I believe no matter what gender you are, you face certain issues regarding mental health. I guess the main thing I’ve been thinking of is normalizing that conversation in general. Honestly, most of the discriminatory remarks I see are towards females, but that’s just my personal experience. I think the recent sigma male, you can say is another blatantly obvious movement that is like, ‘You need to internalize everything. Do not show weakness because you are a sigma male.’ In terms of toxic masculinity, I personally think that it’s a thing, but the people that believe in it are wrong. This is why I like K-pop, because it throws out the whole notion that men need to be hyper masculine super muscle figures. It shows that feminization of men is incredibly profitable and incredibly sexy. But I think that’s why I like the Seoul Movement, I mean I do have my issues with it, but that doesn’t count.”
photo courtesy of victor wan
You kind of answered it a bit, but do you see social media becoming more of a presence for these discussions over school, TV, or films?
V: “Yeah, for sure. The fact that you can express yourself on social media is one of the reasons why I think it will be one of the avenues for expression of mental health. As people probably know, I’ve talked about my own journey on Instagram and Twitch multiple times and as social media becomes more of the norm, it’s the natural avenue for it.”
This one might be the hardest of them all. Who is your ultimate K-pop bias?
V: “My ultimate bias, this one is easy. It’s Jae from DAY6. The reason behind that is he represents a lot of things that are good to advocate for. Advocating for influencers that make a positive impact on the world, because I know there are quite a few people that don’t. I feel like Jae is one of the good people, he uses his platform to talk about mental health issues and his own anxiety. In the interview for Mindset he talks about his own mental health journey and he talks about how the incredibly strict and dehumanizing K-pop practices have rubbed off on him as well. I personally found quite a lot of similarities in becoming a medical profession and being required to act in a certain way or silenced by supervisors, it’s similar to what he is going through. In that sense, that is why I am a Jae stan.”
Favorite anime to watch?
V: “Steins; Gate. If you like mystery, that is the way to go.”
Favorite K-Drama?
V: “My favorite K-Drama, this one is tough. I have a love-hate relationship with K-Dramas and the sense of unrealistic relationships and toxic masculinity, that kind of stuff. But I would say, it’s not perfect, but I like Extraordinary You, it has a lot of those K-Drama tropes but in the perspective of a strong female protagonist that gets with the nice guy that is supposed to be the second lead. I have some issues with the overall plot, but I like the main message.”
Lastly, your favorite game to play?
V: “If you count by hours, League of Legends, but it’s horrible so not much to say about that. But my favorite game that changed my life was Persona 4. It’s a role playing game about a guy that moves into a rural area and develops a relationship with people within a span of a year. There is a story about a murderer and how they work together but the main story is friends. I was playing that game during a time when I didn't have friends and didn’t know what friends were. I never went to a friend's house to hang out, I was ostracized from my high school very thoroughly. At that time I had no idea what it was like to live a normal life with friends that want to talk to you and hang out. That game, it feels sad to say, but they felt like my first real friends who I wanted to hang out with. By the time I had to leave them in the game, I felt a legitimate connection and something that really motivated me to go out and try to achieve that similar life to what I had in that game and connection with people.”