Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
INTERVIEW Mukbang YouTuber spreads joy of being vegetarian
Chang Ji-eun, a YouTuber who uploads vegan mukbang videos on her channel “jiAang Dan,” poses with dishes. / Courtesy of Chang Ji-eun
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Chang Ji-eun, 33, is a YouTuber who regularly uploads “mukbang” videos on her channel. What makes her channel distinctive from other Korean YouTubers, though, is that everything she eats during the show is vegan.
Her videos may help viewers break their preconceptions about vegan food because what she eats appears just like the meals and snacks non-vegans partake in. She eats what seem to be hamburgers, hot dogs, and stir-fried noodles with shrimp, and scones with large chunks of butter.
The only difference is that her hamburgers and hot dogs are made using meat substitutes, mostly made using beans, chickpeas or lentils. The “pseudo shrimps” are also created using, potatoes and wheat. She makes the butter herself using almond milk and coconut oil.
During a recent interview with The Korea Times, Chang said she started her YouTube channel, because she wanted to change the public's perception of veganism and show that the diet is not that difficult at all.
“I started my vegan channel earlier this year, hoping to share my delicious vegan dishes with the people out there. I wanted to show people that we can still enjoy very tasty meals, without taking any lives,” Chang said.
It is now her third year living meat-free. She started back in April 2017, when she got to know a friend who was a vegetarian. Chang said she became curious, and wanted to try the vegetarian diet herself. It wasn't difficult for her to adjust, and from autumn that year, she decided to become a vegan.
“As I was a trainer for some 10 years, I used to eat lots of chicken to maintain the ideal level of muscle tissue in the body. As I knew that protein from meat was necessary to keep in shape. When I became a vegetarian, it was much easier and more comfortable for me to stop eating something that I was eating obsessively. It felt like I was liberated from some sort of oppression,” the YouTuber explained.
“Now I feel like I'm leading an autonomous life. While society and the media encourage us to consume an excessive amount of meat, dairy and seafood, I began to learn more and more about animal rights and environmental issues, and realized my previous eating habits were influenced by society,” she added.
She also shared a piece of advice for those wishing to make the switch: “What I really missed about my previous diet was homemade dak-bokkeum-tang, or spicy braised chicken stew. But I realized I missed it because of the sweet memories related to the food and the taste of the seasoning, not the chicken itself. I learned from my mom how to make the seasoning, and I used it for other vegetarian dishes. Then the craving was gone.”
It's only been a few months since she started her channel, but she's already receiving lots of encouraging messages from subscribers. She hopes more non-vegan people will start to watch her videos.
“I hope to promote the advantages of vegetarian diets. I hope my channel gets people interested in vegetarian meals, and lets them know it's not at all difficult to be a vegan. I also hope to interview activists and organizations about animal rights and environmental issues,” Chang said.
Chang's videos can be seen on her YouTube channel, “jiAang Dan” at: