Farewell Barbie Hsu, the TV big sister I knew and loved

SINGAPORE – When I was in primary school, my form teacher made us journal as part of our homework. I remember very little of the entries, but I remember writing about Meteor Garden (2001 to 2002).

Like many girls my age and older, I was hooked on that hit Taiwanese idol drama. But that was not where I got to know of Taiwanese actress-host Barbie Hsu, who played the series’ poor protagonist Shancai, whose feisty and determined personality got ultra-rich heir Daoming Si (Jerry Yan) to fall in love with her.

It was instead through Taiwanese variety show Guess Guess Guess (1996 to 2012), which she co-hosted with her younger sister Dee Hsu as part of the duo ASOS – they were popularly known as Big S and Little S respectively. She was one of the stars I grew up with, so much a fixture of my childhood entertainment diet that I struggle to remember a time I was not aware of her.

I never imagined I would one day write her obituary, but I did on Feb 3, after Dee confirmed Barbie’s

death at the age of 48 from pneumonia

during a family holiday in Japan. I have written my fair share of celebrity obituaries in my seven years as an entertainment journalist, but hers was the first I wrote with my hands shaking.

It might have been because I watched the news, which I thought was a hoax, get confirmed in real time. Or possibly because my own big sister caught influenza-related pneumonia over the New Year holiday and spent days in a high-dependency ward before she recovered.

I felt like I had lost someone I knew. When my editor assigned me to write a

“10 things to know about Barbie Hsu” listicle,

I replied that I know everything about her. I’ve never met her, so this was certainly my parasocial attachment talking, but I think it is true.

My TV-watching tastes shifted as a young teen from Meteor Garden to American dramas like Grey’s Anatomy (2005 to present), but I remained loyal to Taiwanese variety shows well into adulthood.

So, I’ve watched – and rewatched – clips of Guess Guess Guess and 100% Entertainment (1997 to 2024) hosted by Barbie and Dee, devoured every episode of their short-lived culinary show, Gourmet Secrets Of The Stars (2007 to 2008), and all 12 years’ worth of Mr Con And Ms Csi (2004 to 2016).

Mr Con And Ms Csi was hosted by Dee and talk-show personality Kevin Tsai, but Barbie was a constant presence in Dee’s tales.

I learnt almost everything one can know about Barbie without actually knowing her, in the most intimate of settings – doing laundry with the TV on, sleepless in my bed at night, over microwaved 7-Eleven dinners in a shoebox apartment in Tokyo while studying overseas.

I became an expert when it came to the ins and outs of her dramatic love life; that she hates birthday parties thrown in her honour; how she talked to her beloved pet dog Wu Meiniang on the phone while it died when she was away filming; her nape tattoo of a six-sided star, dedicated to her love of aliens; and how she gave herself the nickname of Tiger when she was a precocious teen.

And I related to her relationship with Dee – how they bickered and how they were, at times, jealous of and in awe of each other, the way sisters typically are.

Like Dee, I looked up to Barbie like she was an older sister. I didn’t agree with everything she said and did, but I admired how she, like her most famous character Shancai, was so fearless.

The media and public can be cruel to famous women. News reports and netizens said she pressured her former boyfriend, actor Blue Lan, into marrying her but failed, and emasculated another former lover, Meteor Garden co-star Vic Chou. Still, when she fell in love, she never hid it.

Even after she was hurt by what must have been a toxic 11-year marriage to Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei, given the ugliness of

their 2021 split,

I was touched – inspired, almost – to see her rekindle her romance with a former flame, South Korean musician Koo Jun-yup, whom she

married in 2022.

She was still open to falling in love, which is so often an exercise in being vulnerable.

She was also the first celebrity I remember who was honest about what she did to look good. As a self-proclaimed “Queen of Beauty”, who released books about skincare and beauty treatments, she talked openly about Botox and Thermage, and admitted to always being hungry to maintain her svelte figure.

I don’t think all her methods were healthy, but I liked that she did not sell me a fantasy.

As I sit now, reminiscing about her and listening to Malaysian singer Penny Tai’s The Love You Want – the ending theme song of Meteor Garden – I am still reeling. How can Shancai be dead? How can ASOS be missing a member? Barbie was always so vibrant, so full of verve, like a ball of fighting spirit. How was she felled by flu?

Her death is a tragedy, for the mother who outlived her, the two young children she left behind, and for everyone who knew and loved her.

But perhaps because I am a younger sister, in this moment, I feel for Dee. I am deeply sorry that Little S will now have to learn to exist in a world without her Big S.

If there is any comfort to be found in a loss so sudden and senseless, it is that Barbie seemed truly happy in the final days of her life, having reconnected with Koo. He loves tattoos, just like she did, and when they married, they tattooed matching wedding bands on their fingers, which I always thought was a lovely detail.

So, farewell, Barbie. You loved being pretty, and now no one will ever see you age. Wherever you may be, I hope you’re wearing the most gorgeous pair of high heels. You did love them so.