Bi Dao: The Tsinghua Chemist Who Turned Everyday Science into Comedy and Curiosity

Bi Dao, whose real name is Bi Xiaotian, is a Chinese science communicator, chemical engineering researcher, and one of the most recognizable educational creators on Bilibili. Born in the early 1990s, he completed his undergraduate and doctoral studies in chemical engineering at Tsinghua University, one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher education. His academic training was rigorous and conventional, focused on complex systems, mathematical modeling, and experimental research. Yet his public identity is anything but conventional. Under the name Bi Dao, which translates roughly as "Instructor Bi," he has built a following of more than five million users on Bilibili by applying serious scientific methods to absurdly ordinary questions: How can a person prevent splashing in a public toilet? Why do mosquitoes seem to target certain people more than others? What is the optimal strategy for eating hot pot without burning one's tongue? How can probability theory improve one's chances in a mobile game lottery? These questions may sound trivial, but the way Bi Dao answers them is anything but. He treats each one as a genuine research problem, complete with literature review, hypothesis formation, controlled experiments, mathematical modeling, and data analysis. The result is a body of work that has redefined what science communication can look like on Chinese video platforms.

Bi Dao began uploading videos to Bilibili around 2017, shortly after completing his doctorate. At the time, the platform's knowledge section was still emerging as a serious content category, and most educational creators either delivered traditional lecture-style lessons or produced short, shallow explainers designed for quick consumption. Bi Dao chose a different path. He combined the rigor of academic research with the pacing and humor of internet-native entertainment. His early videos were not polished productions; they were shot in his apartment, often featuring household objects arranged as makeshift laboratory equipment. But the substance was unmistakable. In his most famous early video, he investigated the physics of toilet splashing by building a scaled model, measuring the impact forces of falling objects on water surfaces, and deriving a formula that related splash height to the distance between the object and the water. The video was funny, but it was also correct. It demonstrated that a seemingly ridiculous question could be a legitimate entry point into fluid dynamics, mechanics, and experimental design.

What distinguishes Bi Dao from other science communicators on Bilibili is his commitment to the full scientific process rather than merely the presentation of conclusions. He does not simply tell viewers what scientists have discovered; he shows them what it looks like to be a scientist. His videos routinely include failed experiments, unexpected results, and moments when his initial hypothesis turns out to be wrong. He explains why he chose a particular experimental setup, what limitations it has, and how confident he is in the findings. This transparency is pedagogically valuable because it models intellectual honesty and teaches viewers that science is not a collection of facts but a method for asking questions and testing answers. His humor, which is dry, self-deprecating, and often absurd, serves as a delivery mechanism for this deeper lesson. He does not dumb down the science, but he makes it accessible by grounding it in experiences that every viewer has had.

Among his most representative works are videos on the physics of hot pot, the mathematics of mobile game gacha systems, the biology of mosquito attraction, and the engineering of everyday objects such as umbrellas and backpacks. His hot pot video, for example, used thermodynamic principles to explain why certain foods cook faster than others and how the shape of a pot affects heat distribution. His gacha video applied probability theory to calculate expected returns and demonstrated why players systematically overestimate their chances of winning rare items. These videos succeeded not because they provided practical advice, although they often did, but because they revealed the hidden mathematical and physical structures underlying ordinary experiences. Viewers who watched them came away with a sense that the world is more intelligible than it appears, and that scientific thinking is a tool available to anyone willing to ask questions.

Bi Dao's platform achievements are substantial. His Bilibili channel has accumulated over five million followers, and his videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. He has been featured in Bilibili's annual Top 100 UP Creator lists in multiple years, a recognition that places him among the platform's most influential knowledge creators. His content has been widely discussed on other social media platforms, including Weibo and Douyin, and he has collaborated with universities, science museums, and media organizations to promote public understanding of science. His academic credentials, including his doctorate from Tsinghua University, give him a level of authority that few science creators possess, but he wears that authority lightly. He never uses his credentials to shut down discussion or to claim that his conclusions are beyond question. Instead, he invites viewers to evaluate his methods and to think critically about the evidence he presents.

The broader social value of Bi Dao's work lies in his demonstration that science communication does not have to choose between rigor and entertainment. In China, as in many countries, there is a widespread assumption that serious scientific content cannot compete with entertainment content for young people's attention. Bi Dao's career disproves that assumption. He has built a mass audience by treating his viewers as intelligent adults who are capable of following complex reasoning and who appreciate being challenged rather than condescended to. His videos have contributed to a broader cultural shift in which scientific thinking is increasingly seen as a desirable attribute rather than a niche academic pursuit. For students who are considering careers in science and engineering, he offers a model of what a public intellectual can look like in the digital age: someone who is rigorous, humble, funny, and genuinely committed to helping others understand the world.

In summary, Bi Dao represents a distinctive model of the creator as public scientist. He has taken the skills he developed in a doctoral program, the curiosity that drives all good research, and the communication instincts of a natural teacher, and he has combined them into a body of work that is both entertaining and intellectually serious. His five million followers on Bilibili are not merely fans of comedy or fans of science; they are people who have discovered that learning can be enjoyable and that the most ordinary questions can lead to the most extraordinary insights. His long-term significance lies not in any single video or viral moment but in the example he sets: that a scientist can speak to the public without abandoning rigor, and that the public can embrace science without abandoning humor.