Actress, singer, and television host Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has passed away due to pneumonia complications after contracting influenza. Her younger sister Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) confirmed her death in a media release on Monday, saying that their family was traveling in Japan for the Lunar New Year holidays when the 48-year-old celebrity, who also went by the stage name Big S, was hospitalized and subsequently died.
Barbie Hsu debuted at the age of 17 as part of the musical duo initially known as "S.O.S." (Sisters of Shu) with Dee Hsu, which launched in 1994 and immediately gained fame. The sisters then stepped into television as popular variety show hosts, before Big S starred in Meteor Garden, the first live-action TV adaptation of the Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers by Yoko Kamio, which shot Big S to Asia-wide fame.
In addition to her screen status, the public was also enamored with Hsu’s sensational love life, which included stars Blackie Chen (陳建州), Koo Jun-yup (구준엽), Lan Cheng-lung (藍正龍), and Victor Chou (周渝民) before her 2010 marriage to Beijing businessman Wang Xiaofei (汪小菲). The couple had two children before their divorce in 2021. Hsu and Koo rekindled their romance shortly afterward and married in 2022.
Even though Hsu had previously been hospitalized after experiencing seizures and was known to have suffered from epilepsy and a leaky heart valve, a condition called mitral valve prolapse, her unexpected death has rocked the Asian entertainment industry and fans around the world.