Barbie Hsu
Shi-yuan 'Barbie Hsu, also known by her stage name Big S', was a Taiwanese actress, singer, and television host. She debuted alongside her younger sister Dee Hsu in 1994 as part of the musical duo S.O.S, which was later rebranded as A.S.O.S and transitioned into television hosting. The sisters co-hosted variety shows such as Guess and 100% Entertainment before Barbie shifted her focus to acting.
As an actor, Hsu rose to pan-Asian fame with her leading role in the television drama Meteor Garden, which is credited with ushering in the idol drama genre and the golden era of Taiwanese television. She went on to star in dramas such as Mars, Corner with Love, Summer's Desire, as well as in the films Connected and Reign of Assassins. After her first marriage in 2010, she gradually stepped back from her career.
Hsu ranked 33rd on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 in 2010, 16th in 2011, and 45th in 2012.
Early life
Hsu was born on 6 October 1976 to Hsu Chien and "May" Huang Chun-mei in Taipei as the second child of three sisters. She had an elder sister, Hsu Shi-hsien, and a younger sister, Dee Hsu.Hsu's paternal family owned a jeweler's shop in Taipei, founded by her paternal grandfather, a waishengren from Tancheng County, Shandong, for over 60 years until its closure in 2018. When she was young, her mother, a benshengren originally working as a waitress at the restaurant next to the Hsus' shop before marriage, separated from Hsu's father, the only son with seven sisters, due to pressure from his family to bear a son, along with his infidelity, domestic abuse, alcoholism and gambling. Her mother worked as a real estate broker to support Hsu and her two sisters while her father fled due to his gambling debt when she was 14, though he later returned. Her parents formally divorced in late 2008 as part of an agreement in which Barbie and Dee settled their father's gambling debts one final time—reportedly after he was held hostage by debt-collecting triad members along with his girlfriend—in exchange for his signature on the divorce papers. Over the years, they had already paid more than NT$8 million to cover his debts. Their mother acted as a spokesperson and partial manager throughout their career, while their father, who maintained a good relationship with his daughters after he had given up drinking, died from liver cancer in 2012 at the age of 59.
In 1993, Hsu enrolled at the National Kuo Kuang Academy of Arts, then under Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense, and dropped out after one year due to its military-style discipline. In 1994, she and Dee enrolled at the Taipei Hwa Kang Arts School, a vocational senior high school where she majored in the Drama Department and specialized in Chinese opera kungfu, namely the martial arts and acrobatic techniques used in traditional Chinese opera. At Hwa Kang, the sisters befriended classmates Pace Wu, Aya Liu, and three others, forming a close-knit group known as the "Seven Fairies", named after the characters of Chinese folklore. After four of them entered the entertainment industry, they grew close to three fellow artists—Christine Fan, Mavis Fan, and Makiyo Kawashima—who were later also widely associated with the name "Seven Fairies".
Career
At age 11, Hsu made her first film appearance as an extra in The Sea Plan, directed by Heinrich Wang. At 14, after her sister Dee was scouted while running on the school playground and invited along with their family to audition for a commercial directed by Wayne Peng and featuring singer Chou Chuan-huing, the three Hsu sisters and their mother attended the tryout together. Barbie then began working as a commercial actress, initially and primarily under Peng's direction, to help support the family financially. Her work included a beverage commercial with Takeshi Kaneshiro at age 17, which would also be shown in the film The Ring, prior to her enrollment at Taipei Hwa Kang Arts School.During the commercial audition, the Hsu sisters caught the attention of Chou's label, Famous Records, which first signed Barbie, followed shortly by Dee. Barbie was featured on the variety show Comedian Bump Earth with Chou as his "fan," while the sisters appeared in the music video for Chou's song "Can't Let You Go" in 1991. However, before their debut as a pop duo, contractual disputes arose due to a clash between the sisters' playful personalities and Famous Records founder Chen Kuo-Chin's vision of a more "pure and innocent" image for them, modeled after then-popular singers such as Amber Fang, Gloria Yip, and Vivian Chow. As a result, their first album, Occupy Youth, was shelved for two years. When it was released in 1994, Chen initially named the duo Do Bi Do Wa after one of their songs. However, during their first recording of a variety show, the host mistakenly assumed that one sister was named Do Bi and the other Do Wa. Disliking the name, one day before the agency's formal announcement of the duo's stage name, Hsu sought help from their album's producer, Bing Wang, who subsequently renamed them S.O.S., which also led to their respective stage names, Big S and Little S.
Upon their debut, the duo was well received by Taiwanese variety shows during their promotional tour, despite their agency's strong objections to their adoption of a comedic image, which clashed with their intended branding. They gained popularity in 1995 with their bubblegum pop song "Ten-Minute Love" from their second album Best of S.O.S., but their following albums received little notice. In 1995, they attempted to break into the Japanese market with the release of two albums: Occupy Youth, their Taiwanese debut album, was released in Japan on 19 August, followed by a best-of compilation on 16 December, which featured Japanese versions of songs from their first three Taiwanese albums and four additional Japanese tracks. They also appeared on Fuji TV's late-night variety show Asia N Beat. Their venture into Japan was cut short primarily due to Dee's unwillingness to maintain a long-distance relationship with her then-boyfriend Mickey Huang in Taiwan, leading the sisters to step back from their training sessions in Japan and ultimately part ways with then-manager Chen Kuo-Chin. That same year, the duo first dabbled in hosting with two short-lived variety shows, Chao Meng XYZ and Qingchun Baomazai.
In 1996, with no sign of a career revival, the sisters considered leaving the entertainment industry by opening a clothing store, which would become Shi Mu at Dinghao Mall in Eastern District of Taipei, operated by their older sister from mid-1997 until its closure in early 2004 due to financial losses. The duo also attempted other side ventures in the early 2000s—including another clothing store with Pace Wu and an investment in a dessert shop—both of which failed by 2004. By the time of their store Shi Mu opened, however, their performance at a mixed-artist concert on the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1996—organized by TV producer and manager Wang Wei-Zhong, known as Taiwan's "Godfather of Variety Shows"—had impressed him not for their vocal prowess but for their energetic stage presence and ability to draw a crowd despite the rainy night, prompting Wang to offer them television hosting opportunities.
After becoming the first generation of Guess hosts and then terminating their contract with Chen, whose agency banned them from releasing albums under their original group name, they rebranded as and signed with Wang's Golden Star Entertainment. Following this, the duo shifted their career focus from singing to hosting. They co-hosted Golden Star-produced variety show Guess with Lung Shao-hua and then Jacky Wu, respectively; entertainment news program 100% Entertainment ; variety show Weekend Three Precious Fun with Harlem Yu; and cooking show . The duo ended their management partnership with Wang Wei-Zhong and established their own studios in 2010, after which Barbie primarily focused on acting in Hong Kong and mainland China, while Dee continued hosting in Taiwan.
As hosts, the duo became known for their casual, intimate, and authentic style, underpinned by a sharp sense of humor, with Barbie often playing the straight man while Dee played the comic. After their initial success on Guess, where they played second fiddle to male hosts, the sisters' second wind came with entertainment news program 100% Entertainment. They impressed the producers while temporarily filling in for the show's original MC, Tu-lin Ho, and were subsequently offered the hosting role by GTV founder Yang Teng-kuei, a figure with reputed triad connections who would later become their godfather. During their tenure, news segments on the show frequently gave way to the sisters’ lively and sassy banter. They were known for candidly sharing personal anecdotes and family matters, blurring the lines between their private and public lives and pioneering a form of reality television avant la lettre in the Chinese-speaking world.
The media synergy the sisters thrived on was evident in a tumultuous 2000. Earlier that year, after two years under the high pressure of 100% Entertainment’s daily live broadcasts, they attempted again to withdraw from the entertainment industry. The decision was precipitated by a series of personal and professional setbacks, including the death of their grandfather in late 1999, backlash over their [|comments on glove puppetry], and their public criticism of Guess co-host Jacky Wu for concealing his marriage while entangled in a love triangle with actress Vicky Chen and TV producer Chan Jen-hsiung. Seeking to resign from hosting, the sisters told their manager, Wang Wei-Zhong, that they planned to leave the industry by going to study in England. Wang ultimately persuaded them to stay, compromising with a one-month study trip instead. In September 2000, the sisters traveled to England with Mavis Fan and filmed travelogue segments for 100% Entertainment. The sisters' wavering commitment to their careers came to a head during the study trip in October, when Dee in London received a breakup call from her then-boyfriend Mickey Huang from Taiwan. Upon returning to Taiwan, the sisters used their platform to allege that the breakup was caused by Huang's affair with Bowie Tsang. The allegation, which would be substantiated a year later by the founding issue of the Next Magazine, severely damaged both Huang's and Tsang's careers. Other notable examples throughout the years of their non-scripted, melodramatic reality television style on 100% Entertainment included Barbie's disappearance from a planned live broadcast following a family dispute—prompting Dee to tearfully search for her on air—and the public unravelling of Barbie's breakups with Koo Jun-yup and Lan Cheng-lung. In 2019, GTV began re-airing edited episodes of 100% Entertainment from the sisters’ tenure, which gained renewed popularity among younger audiences on social media.
Musically, after leaving Famous Records in 1997, they mainly focused on hosting and did not release an album for four years, until Pervert Girls in 2001, their first album as A.S.O.S. but also their last as a group. They signed a one-year record deal with a relatively small label Skyhigh Entertainment in exchange for the creative carte blanche over the album, where Barbie and Dee wrote all the compositions and lyrics. Initially produced by Sandee Chan before she was replaced by Mavis Fan, the album was a gothic fantasia that was overlooked upon release, but was later reassessed for its avant-garde experimentation and revived on social media. In 2010, Barbie, Dee, and Mavis Fan debuted Shorty Tall, with Barbie serving as artistic director and overseeing visual and costume design. The group, which had been in contemplation for years, performed only twice that year, at the Kangsi concerts in Beijing and Shenyang. Barbie, Dee, Mavis and Aya Liu, who sometimes called themselves the Four Sisters and performed together, released two songs, "Girls' Party" in 2001 and "Girls Journey" in 2019, both celebrating their friendship. Outside of her group activities, Hsu sporadically released songs, such as the duet "Let Me Love You" with Vic Chou, the single "Diamond" with her own lyrics, and the duet "Sweetheart" with Richie Jen. The three songs, respectively, served as the theme songs for the TV dramas Mars, Summer's Desire and the film Adventure of the King. She appeared in music videos, such as Shin's "Before the Dawn", Show Lo's "Self-Hypnosis" and "Waist Support", and Shawn Yue's "We are Actually Familiar". She also wrote lyrics for other singers such as Mavis Fan, Josie Ho, and Dee. In 2015, Barbie and Dee reunited for their breakout song, "Ten-Minute Love," at the live house Legacy Taipei during Dee's first solo concert.
As an actor, Hsu rose to pan-Asian fame with her leading role of Shan Cai in Meteor Garden, the first TV adaptation of the Japanese comic series Hana Yori Dango, along with boy group F4. Besides the Chinese-speaking world, the show brought her fame in large swathes of East and Southeast Asia, with many countries producing remakes in the following years, including Japan's Boys Over Flowers, South Korea's Boys Over Flowers, China's Meteor Shower and Meteor Garden, United States's Boys Before Friends, and India's Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan. The show earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the 36th Golden Bell Awards and is credited with ushering in the idol drama genre—teen-oriented love stories featuring attractive young stars—and the golden era of Taiwanese television, during which Taiwan dominated the genre in the Asian market for the next decade. Following a sequel Meteor Garden II, Hsu established herself as the first "Queen of Idol Dramas," starring in TV dramas such as Eternity: A Chinese Ghost Story, Mars, where she reunited with F4 member Vic Chou, Corner with Love, for which she was nominated for the Magnolia Award for Best Actress at the 14th Shanghai Television Festival, and Summer's Desire.
Hsu transitioned into films later in her career but found less success compared to television. Her first starring role in a feature film came with the Chinese horror film The Ghost Inside, followed by the Taiwanese films Silk and My So-Called Love. Unaware of the film's explicitness, she unsuccessfully auditioned for the female lead in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, which eventually cast Tang Wei. Hsu broke into Hong Kong film industry with Connected, a remake of the Hollywood thriller Cellular, for which she received a nomination for the Best Actress at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards. For her two films On His Majesty's Secret Service and Hot Summer Days, she shared the Best Movie Actress at the 14th China Music Awards with Kelly Lin and Yan Ni. However, for her three films in one year, Future X-Cops, Reign of Assassins, and Adventure of the King, Hsu received the Most Disappointing Actress at the 2nd Golden Broom Awards. The reasoning given was: "Hsu's acting is confusing, with her laughing resembling crying and crying resembling laughing. Her performance feels too modern, overly exaggerated, and lacks emotional depth."
After marrying Chinese entrepreneur Wang Xiaofei in late 2010, Hsu decided to step back from her career to focus on family life. Nevertheless, she accepted a role in My Kingdom, a martial arts film she had initially withdrawn due to radial nerve inflammation that had immobilized her right hand and arm, before its director, Gao Xiaosong, a friend of Wang, successfully lobbied her through him to reconsider. The film, the last she acted in, underperformed at the box office, coinciding with the director’s drunk driving scandal; it premiered while he was in jail, the first public figure in China to be sentenced after the offense was criminalized that year.
In 2012, two films Hsu had shot in 2010 were released after two years of post-production. For her performance in the monster film Croczilla, she received the Golden Lotus Award for Best Actress at the 4th Macau International Movie Festival, without prior knowledge of the nomination or an invitation to the ceremony, and the Best Actress at the 1st Asian Idol Awards, held by Anhui TV in 2012, a ceremony that was discontinued the following year after its second iteration. Her last theatrical release was the Hong Kong film Motorway, where she received the leading female credit but only made a cameo appearance. Throughout her film career, Hsu faced skepticism regarding her credibility as a serious actress and her perceived lack of bankability as a movie star, but retrospective evaluations of her work improved after she withdrew from acting, recognizing her as one of the few actresses whose film career spanned Greater China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China.
In addition to acting, Hsu published a beauty guide Beauty Queen in 2004, followed by a sequel in 2007. Both books became bestsellers across the Chinese-speaking world and played a major role in popularizing brands such as Kiehl's and SK-II in China, though some of the beauty ideals and techniques they introduced were subject to re-evaluation in later years. Among the many beauty tips she popularized—both in her books and beyond—were the "red wine facial mask" and the use of the hair-loss treatment Rogaine to thicken eyebrows. She co-wrote SOS Chao Meng Qing Chun and SOS Tokyo Shopping Map with Dee, the former about their teenage years and the latter a Japanese fashion and travel guide. She also published Penny Dreadful, a collection of poems, and Lao Niang Jia Dao, a memoir about motherhood for her first child.
Hsu paused her career after the first year of her marriage. Following the birth of her first child in 2014, Hsu made several attempts at returning to acting, only to be thwarted by pregnancy, health issues, and the declining opportunities for middle-aged actresses. Notably, she withdrew from the TV series Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace and a planned hosting reunion with Dee following the conclusion of the latter's talk show Kangsi Coming, both due to her pregnancy in 2015. In November 2016, she drew attention by posting a make-up-free selfie on Weibo, presenting it as evidence of her wish for acting opportunities and her readiness to portray ordinary, unglamorous roles. Her last attempt at acting was a role she volunteered for to support Angie Chai, the producer of Meteor Garden, when Chai's Taiwanese adaptation of the K-drama Our Blues reportedly fell through in 2024.
Hsu continued to appear in variety shows and advertisements. From 2011 to 2012, and for a short period in 2015, she served as a stand-in host for Dee during the latter's maternity leave and injury leave, respectively, on Kangsi Coming, where Barbie also frequently appeared as a guest over the years. After her second childbirth, she returned as a guest on the Chinese game show The Brian in 2017. Since 2017, Hsu had collaborated with the Italian brand C&C Gioielli to design and co-brand a jewelry line. In 2018, she participated in her final film, reprising her role of Elastigirl as a voice actress in Taiwan's dubbed version of the Pixar animated film Incredibles 2. That same year, she hosted Chinese variety show Miss Beauty and participated in the marriage reality show Happiness Trio with her then husband Wang Xiaofei. In 2019, she participated as a commentator in both the Chinese reality dating series Dream Space and the family reality series We've Grown Up, which follows the upbringing of a family's second child after the loosening of China's one-child policy. That same year, she participated in the travelogue series We Are Real Friends with Dee, Mavis Fan and Aya Liu. In 2020, she participated in the Chinese documentary show After Becoming Mother . She co-produced the web show hosted by Dee, which was nominated for the Golden Bell Award for Best Variety Show.