Barbie Hsu

Shi-yuan Barbie Hsu (Chinese: 徐熙媛; pinyin: Xú Xīyuán; 6 October 1976 – 2 February 2025), also known by her stage name Big S (大S; Dà S), was a Taiwanese actress, singer, and television host. She debuted alongside her younger sister Dee Hsu (Little S) in 1994 as part of the musical duo S.O.S (Sisters of Shiu), which was later rebranded as A.S.O.S (Adult Sisters of Shiu) and transitioned into television hosting. The sisters co-hosted variety shows such as Guess (1996–2000) and 100% Entertainment (1998–2005) 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 (2001–2002), 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 (2004), Corner with Love (2007), Summer's Desire (2010), as well as in the films Connected (2008) and Reign of Assassins (2010). 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 (1987), 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 (2002), 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 (神采唱片), which first signed Barbie, followed shortly by Dee. Barbie was featured on the variety show Comedian Bump Earth (笑星撞地球) with Chou as his "fan," while the sisters appeared in the music video for Chou's song "Can't Let You Go" (捨不得你走) 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 (佔領年輕), was shelved for two years. When it was released in 1994, Chen initially named the duo Do Bi Do Wa (嘟比嘟哇) 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. (Sisters of Shiu), 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" (十分鐘的戀愛) 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 (アジアNビート). 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 (超猛XYZ) and Qingchun Baomazai (青春報馬仔).

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 A.S.O.S. (Adult Sisters of Shiu) 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 (1996–2000) with Lung Shao-hua and then Jacky Wu, respectively; entertainment news program 100% Entertainment (1998–2005); variety show Weekend Three Precious Fun (週末三寶Fun) (2001) with Harlem Yu; and cooking show Gourmet Secrets of the Stars (2007–2008). 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 (and sometimes excessively) 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.