[Internet Oddities] Chris W. Chandler or How I learned To Stop Worrying and Love Autism

Welcome to a new regular feature I hope to produce called Internet Oddities. Here we'll be taking a look at well, for lack of a better word, oddities from around the internet. This will not be about ridiculing anyone, but instead an exploration of why. If you enjoy it and would like to read more, let me know in the comments.

Christine Weston Chandler (born Christopher, and later changed to Christian) was born on 24th February 1982. That’s how every article and documentary seems to begin when discussing Chris-chan, so I feel I should too. You’ve either heard of Chris-chan, or you haven’t.

A couple of days ago it was Chris’s birthday, so I want to start off by wishing her a Happy 36th Birthday. As you’ve probably gathered, Chris now identifies as Christine, but I’ll still use him/he when referring to Chris in his younger days before identifying as Christine, and I’ll probably just refer to her as Chris from this point forward. I also want to point out that this write-up will not be mocking, belittling or laughing at Chris.

Chris is arguably one of the most documented individuals in all of human history. Almost every aspect of his life from early childhood to present day is archived and forever burnt into the internets collective memory. I don’t want to just repeat what many others have already done, but I want to project myself a bit on to Chris. I want to understand why Chris is who she is.

I first heard about Chris about a year and a half ago, I was watching a video uploaded by a new (at the time) YouTuber called Fredrik Knudsen. He’d started a new series called Down The Rabbit Hole, which I highly recommend you go watch if you haven’t already. Fredrik’s second video was on the topic of Chris and his infamous creation, Sonichu. I’ve included the video at the top if you wish to watch it.

Sonichu is Chris’s life's work and his magnum opus. He started work on Sonichu in November 2004, and he is still working on it to this day. Sonichu is part Pikachu, and part Sonic (to put it simply) and was created part as a creative outlet for Chris, and also to compliment his Love Quest.

The Love Quest is the second part of what brought Chris internet fame, and is the real-life saga of his attempts to find an “18-23 year old boyfriend-free girl”. Like many people on the Autism Spectrum, Chris has struggled his entire life to find and maintain meaningful relationships. There is some debate online as to whether Chris succeeded in his quest. Some say the quest ended in early 2012 when Chris lost his virginity to a sex worker, others say he is still searching for his “18 - 23 year old boyfriend free girl”.

I’ve had a bit of an obsession with Chris, but I think in a different way to many online. I failed to mention it so far, but Chris was diagnosed as having High-Functioning Autism at a young age. I see so much of myself in Chris, or I guess rather, I see an alternative version of myself in Chris. Since my own diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), I’ve often wondered what makes me the person I am. Why do I seem different to others on the spectrum? Well, part of the answer to that is because ASD can appear so different in individuals with it. My Asperger’s is not the same as your Asperger’s.

Chris has been reported to view so-called "low-functioning" autism as a "window to hell". Many view this as him looking down on those who do not have the "High-Functioning" label, but it could equally be his own fear of his own limitations. I don't know, I guess that's really a massive topic in and of itself.

If you’ve read my previous post about my Asperger’s, you’ll know that I received a diagnosis much later in life, during my mid-20s. Chris received his diagnosis early in his life. Chris also lead a fairly sheltered life, having spent the majority of his life living with his parents. I don’t think there’s any denying that Chris has delusional tendencies, which many argue have been enabled by his parents. I tend to agree with this. His Dad is now deceased, but he appears to still live with his Mum. I could be wrong there. Chris appears to have built up his view on the world largely through television and the internet, and this limited view of the world shows in his work.

I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here, but bare with me. I met a guy with Autism (no idea exactly what his diagnosis was, I never asked) while I was taking an Internet and Business degree. We were told by the college tutors to basically treat him as someone with severe mental difficulties (paraphrasing). He was similar to Chris in many ways, lived with his parents, limited world-view and it wasn’t that he was low intelligence, but he just could not give a fuck about being there. I believe he had been home schooled most of his life. I walked back from college with him a couple of times, and he told me that he was only there because his Dad had given him an ultimatum; get a job or go to college. This guy didn’t give much credence to personal hygiene, and seemed to very much look down on his peers, despite seemingly having very little reason to justify his superiority complex.

From what I could gather, his parents were accomplished both academically and in their personal careers. Chris’s dad was very much the same, having numerous patents under his belt which the family were very proud of. Maybe for individuals on the spectrum, having such an accomplished parent or parents puts too much pressure on them, who knows? This guy would often come out with points of view that I found a bit concerning. I won’t go into details, but I understand why he thought like that. He just didn’t know any better, his world was so small and limited that this was the best way he could rationalise why people do the things they do.

I’ve come across a couple of other similar individuals, and it always makes me think “Why? What makes you the way you are, and me the way I am?”. I often wonder what my life would have been like if maybe I’d received an early diagnosis. What my life might have been like if I’d never met my friend Andy? Although for me, there were many struggles growing up, I got through them, learnt from them and hopefully it made me a better person. If I had been enabled from a young age, told by those I looked up to that I was either better, or maybe inferior to my peers, then I would be a drastically different person today.

Much like Chris, I had a fan-site for Pokemon during the late 90s. The main difference was, I was around the age of 10 and Chris was around the age of 15. I also drew my own little comic books, and I have to say to a much lower standard than Sonichu, and with a lot less imagination. There are certain elements of the Sonichu comics that people find odd, such as his inclusion of “ads” or certain other elements like copyright text. I did the same thing, it’s about emulating your surroundings. I didn’t have imaginary friends as a kid, I had an imaginary TV channel where the games I played were the shows. I would play out in my head pretend adverts. I’d include similar legalese in my comics, literally just copying what I saw in the magazines and comics I read, with no real understanding of why it’s there.

Chris seems to be a perpetual child, still obsessed with her childhood. She’s been molded by the trolls that have hounded her her whole life, unable to tell who is genuine and who is fake. Chris seems stuck in a never-ending state of arrested development. She didn’t grow up with siblings and there’s evidence to suggest that what few friends Chris had growing up, were only there because his Dad would give them money.

The treatment of Chris saddens me so much, he has spent his life being hounded by trolls, in fact no to call them trolls is too good for many of these people, they really are the lowest of the low. Viewing Chris like some kind of exhibit for their pleasure. Chris is the damaged individual he is today in part because of these low-lives. You really can see the worst of humanity online.

She still uploads videos to YouTube, wearing the famous sonichu medallion and she is still plagued by the likes of 4chan and other such troll sites. The efforts that people have gone to in order to archive his entire life is utterly bewildering. It asks the question, what are these people doing with their lives? Why do they feel the need to torture this poor soul? I guess we’ll never really know.

Chris, if you're reading this, you're not alone.

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Sources:
Chris Chan: A Comprehensive History - Part 1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Aiv66DEGjE)
Sonichu and Christian Weston Chandler (CWC) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPtLvxO8hs)
Christian Weston Chandler (CWCki) (https://sonichu.com/cwcki/Christian_Weston_Chandler)

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