10 facts you might not know about Taiwanese celeb Barbie Hsu

Originally named SOS or “Sisters of Shu”, Barbie Hsu and sister Dee Hsu were formerly in a pop dup called ASOS (A Sisters of Shu). As a result, Barbie is often referred to as “Big S” while Dee is “Little S”. The sisters also have an older sibling.

Playing the role of a poor teenage girl Shancai who gets enrolled in a private school for the rich, the 2001 Taiwanese romance drama was a hit across the Chinese-speaking world. The show cemented the popularity of Barbie Hsu as well as the members of the boyband F4.

Barbie Hsu is also a prolific television host and has fronted many variety shows including Guess Guess Guess, 100% Entertainment and Miss Beauty.

In 2005, Barbie Hsu released a beauty book titled Mei Rong Da Wang (Beauty Queen: Secrets of Beauty Treatment). According to Goodreads, the book details “her special ways in weight reducing, hair care, and whitening.”

In an episode of Dee Hsu’s talk show, Dee Girls Talk, the sister revealed a sexual harassment incident that she and Barbie Hsu faced. The incident happened when they were teenagers and newbies in the industry. A veteran variety show host took advantage of this fact and got handsy with the sisters.

“He’s exactly that type of Da Ge, for example, when he welcomes you to the show, he would tell you that he would take good care of you. At this moment, he would then shove you into the deepest recesses of his armpit and say, ‘So cute! You two sisters must work hard!'”

Prior to her current husband Koo Jun-yup, Barbie Hsu was married to Chinese entrepreneur Wang Xiaofei. The two had gotten engaged after just 20 days of dating and had been married for 11 years with two kids.

With her current husband, who is also known as DJ Koo, Barbie Hsu and Koo Jun-yup had previously dated for a year in 1998 before they split up. After he had heard of her divorce, he called Barbie on her mobile number which she hadn’t changed for 20 years. Lo and behold, that began the courtship once again and led them to register their marriage even though they haven’t met in two decades and were separated by Covid-19 policies. DJ Koo decided to pop the question and the two got married and reunited in a whirlwind, fairytale-esque relationship.

Named S Hotel, the four-star boutique hotel is located in the Songshan district in Taipei, Taiwan. The hotel was designed by French designer Philippe Starck.

A mother of two, Barbie Hsu revealed difficulties in her past pregnancies. For starters, after she gave birth to her second child, son Wang Hsi-lin, Barbie stopped breathing and had to be sent into the intensive care unit. She added that she believed that it was her first child, daughter Hsi-yueh, who “pulled me away from death’s door” as she heard her say that she would take of her little brother.

Her third pregnancy then ended in abortion as the foetus was found to not be fully developed. She also suffered an epileptic fit caused by a cold when she was seven weeks pregnant with the third child.

It has been reported that Barbie Hsu is not a fan of her celebrating her birthday. Why? She hates being reminded of her age. FYI, Barbie Hsu was born on October 6, 1976.

During the early days of the global Covid-19 pandemic, there was a severe shortage of masks and medical equipment. In June 2020, Barbie Hsu found 10,000 masks in Japan and sent them to Wuhan, China. The reactions from both Chinese and Taiwanese netizens, however, were split. The former praised her with phrases such as “Beijing’s daughter-in-law” while the latter called her a “traitor”.

Barbie Hsu is a fan of tattoo art and she herself has multiple inks on her body. In 2017, she shared the process of getting a wing design on her left shoulder and added that “I’m a wife, I’m a mother, but I’m still me; I’m a free spirit!”. Barbie Hsu reportedly believes that tattoos are a “form of art, especially to women”.

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