Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu of Meteor Garden fame and DJ Koo's wife dies at 48

The sudden, untimely death of Barbie Hsu left everyone in disbelief. Her grieving sister mentioned missing her dearly.

By Peuli Bakshi

Updated on Feb 03, 2025 | 11:09 AM IST | 125.1K

Barbie Hsu: courtesy of Getty Images

Trigger Warning: This article contains mention of death.

On February 3, the shocking and heartbreaking news of the death of Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu was confirmed, as per Taiwanese media outlets. She passed away at an early age of 48 after succumbing to influenza, as revealed by her sister to the media through her agent. The news shocked everyone, including her friends, family and co-stars.

The Meteor Garden actress was diagnosed with the disease when she visited Japan with her family on the occasion of the Lunar New Year. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu said on Monday. A grieving sister talked of being fortunate to have Barbie Hsu as her sister. She said, "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other." She also mentioned missing her sister.

Unconfirmed reports of her death began circulating on February 2, after some media articles about it. A social media page also mentioned the death of a prominent Taiwanese actress, without mentioning her name but providing hints of it being a reference to Barbie Hsu. Even her friends and family did not open up about the issue. One of her friends, Makiyo, reacted with shock and skepticism to the news, stating that she had no prior knowledge of it.

On February 3, Barbie Hsu's ex-husband and Chinese businessman, Wang Xiaofei, changed his profile picture on Douyin and WeChat to a solid black image, which further increased speculation that the death news of the actress might have been true. Then Barbie Hsu's sister ended the confusion by confirming the sad news' authenticity through her agent. Barbie Hsu left behind her South Korean spouse, singer and DJ Koo Jun Yup, and her two children, a 10-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son, from her previous marriage to Wang Xiaofei.

She starred in several movies and series like Summer's Desire (2010), Mars (2004), and Reign of Assassins (2010). She was best known for her lead role as Shancai in the original version of Meteor Garden. The Taiwanese drama has later been remade in the same language with a younger cast and also in other languages, including Korean and Thai.