Barbie Hsu, a Taiwanese actress, tv host and dad megastar who catapulted to Pan-Asian reputation in 2001 because the megastar of the Cinderella-style youth drama “Meteor Garden,” died on Feb. 2 in Tokyo. She was once 48.
Her dying was once introduced to TVBS Information in Taiwan by way of her sister Dee Hsu, who mentioned the purpose was once headaches of the flu. The nation have been vacationing in Japan.
In “Meteor Garden,” an adaptation of the Eastern manga “Boys Over Flowers,” Ms. Hsu performed Dong Shan Cai, a naïve but stubborn pupil from a beggarly nation who’s terrorized by way of a bunch of 4 good-looking boys who name themselves F4 then she enrolls within the elite personal faculty they attend. She reluctantly enters prime folk when F4’s chief, Dao Ming Si (performed by way of Jerry Yan), falls for her.
Together with her expressive ocular and elfin options, Ms. Hsu was once a herbal for the position, and he or she exploded in reputation throughout swaths of Asia, the place she was once recognized by way of the nickname Obese S.
Enthusiasts had been specifically attracted to her persona’s relatable and resilient nature. “I am like a blade of grass,” she mentioned in a single episode. “No matter how many times you cut me down, I will grow back and live again.”
The 4 male stars worn the line’ affect to advertise their boy band, often known as F4 — for “Flower Four” — making “Meteor Garden” an early instance of the style referred to as idol drama, formulaic however addictive love tales that includes pop stars. Ms. Hsu’s persona become the style’s vintage protagonist.
As Mei Ting Li, a lecturer of media research on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong who makes a speciality of fandom and prevalent tradition, wrote in an e-mail, the display “became the archetype of Chinese-language TV drama that allowed the cross-media celebrity business.”
The line’ reputation resulted in nearest presentations tailored from the similar supply subject material, together with a 2018 Chinese language drama of the similar title and the massively a hit “Boys Over Flowers” (2009).
Its reputation unfold so far as the Philippines, the place it become probably the most nation’s highest-rated presentations, inspiring a quasi-religious fervor amongst younger public that become referred to as “Meteor fever.” Filipino males followed the floppy hair and get dressed in their favourite characters, and the celebrities had been mobbed after they visited the rustic.
All over one discuss with, in 2003, the media conglomerate ABS-CBN, which aired “Meteor Garden,” used decoy actors in wigs to distract the paparazzi, and a few 100 policemen had been deployed to top unruly crowds.
Hsi-yuan Hsu was once born on Oct. 6, 1976, in Taipei, Taiwan, to Huang Chun-Mei and Hsu Chien. The family was once tumultuous: Her mom separated from her father over his playing. Barbie’s mom supported her and her two sisters by way of operating as an actual property dealer.
In 1994, Ms. Hsu and her more youthful sister, Dee, enrolled within the Hwa Kang Arts Faculty in Taipei, the place they befriended a bunch of classmates nicknamed the Seven Fairies, together with the actresses and singers Mavis Fan, Presen Wu and Aya Liu.
Occasion at Hwa Kang, the Hsu sisters started appearing as a pop duo referred to as S.O.S., or Sisters of Shu; their 1995 bubblegum pop tune “Ten Minutes of Love” become a breakout strike. They nearest modified their title to A.S.O.S., for All Sisters of Shu, and co-hosted selection presentations like “Guess,” from 1996 to 2000, and “100% Entertainment,” from 1998 to 2005.
Ms. Hsu leveraged her “Meteor Garden” repute to advertise two best-selling attractiveness guides, revealed in 2004 and 2007, that inspired readers to struggle pink wine facials to oppose growing older and Rogaine to thicken their eyebrows.
In 2008, she branched out into Chinese language-language cinema by way of taking part in a girl abducted by way of a gang of Interpol brokers in “Connected,” a remake of the 2004 Hollywood mystery “Cellular.” In 2010, she performed a sadistic younger girl who murdered her fiancé and his oldsters on her marriage ceremony evening within the martial arts movie “Reign of Assassins,” starring Michelle Yeoh.
Ms. Hsu withdrew from appearing in 2011, however her tumultuous dating with the Chinese language businessman Wang Xiaofei, whom she married in 2010, stored her within the highlight; they divorced in 2021. Her survivors come with a son, Hsi-Lin, and a daughter, Hsi-Yueh, in addition to her 2nd husband, Koo Jun-yup, a South Korean singer referred to as DJ Koo, whom she married in 2022.
Ms. Hsu skilled a number of condition problems, together with middle illness and epilepsy, in addition to a near-fatal seizure right through the delivery of her son. Her dying despatched ripples of disaster throughout Asia and trended on Weibo, the Chinese language social media platform. The South China Morning Publish reported that a lot of her bereaved enthusiasts became to the Chinese language synthetic insigt start-up DeepSeek to create adios letters mimicking her writing genre.
Many of those letters famous her signature word: “Live beautifully.”
