Barbie Hsu, star of the extremely popular Asian drama “Meteor Garden”, dies at the age of 48

Barbie Hsu, a Taiwanese actress who died in the popular television drama “Meteor Garden”, which once swept Asia, died after triggering a pneumonia triggered by the flu. She was 48.

According to her younger sister Dee Hsu, also a famous TV presenter, HSU, better known as “Da s”, what “Big S” means when she visited Japan with her family. Dee HSU said that pneumonia was a flu complication.

“I am grateful that I was able to be her sister in this life, to take care of each other and be a companion. I will be grateful for you forever and miss you!” In a statement on Monday, Dee HSU said without specifying where and when her sister died.

The news about Barbie Hsus sudden death shocked the audience in Taiwan and China, where many had seen their shows since their early career. In China, the news of her death on the Weibo Social Media platform was tended.

“It feels like someone with whom they are so familiar with suddenly disappeared,” wrote a Weibo user. “This is incredible. Her two children, poor children. May them rest in peace.”

HSU broke into the industry when she as a teenager founded a pop music group called SOS with her sister Dee HSU, who popularly as “Xiao s” or “Small S.” The couple later switched to TV shows and won many young fans.

In 2001, the name of Meteor Garden Barbie Hsu beamed into many households in Asia.

According to BBC, HSU played a teenager from a bourgeois family in the drama who attended an elite private school. Her four male co-stars in the meteor garden would later form the Taiwanese boy band F4, one of the most popular mandopop groups of the 2000s.

On Monday, the F4 member Ken Chu divided a black, empty screen and a group photo with HSU on Instagram. “What a bolt out of the blue,” he wrote on Weibo.

After gaining widespread popularity, she continued to promote her entertainment career through other TV dramas, films and talk shows.

In recent years it has also made her personal life into the news, especially her top -class divorce from the Chinese businessman Wang Xiaofei. Her Fallout with Wang, her heated exchange on social media after their divorce in 2021 and their legal fights often made headlines.

Later she married the Korean musician Koo Jun-Yup, also known as “DJ Koo”.

HSU was enthusiastic about defending animal rights and working with groups like PETA.

“Barbie was one of the first and greatest stars to support PETA,” says a statement by Senior Vice President of the organization, Jason Baker. “She spoke countless times for animals and asked the brands directly not to sell the sale of fur.”

Fans in Taiwan, the Philippines and elsewhere also paid tribute to social media.

The Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, who played the leading role with HSU in another Taiwanese drama with the help of HSU, said he was “in shock and deep grief” about her death.

“I heard that really brilliant souls are never doubled from time – they stay alive, like bubbles in the sun,” said Huang about Weibo.

Stacy Hsu, a Taiwanese celebrity, posted on Facebook that Hsus will “stay in our hearts forever”.

HSU is survived by Koo and two children, which she shares with Wang.

Agence France press contributed to this report.