TV host Dee Hsu (centre) thanked fans of Barbie Hsu for their tributes, which included a memorial tribute in Time Square. Photos: Screengrab from Dee Hsu/Instagram, Jiang Er-Er/Xiaohongshu
Well-known Taiwanese TV host Dee Hsu made a post on Instagram on Feb 15, two weeks after her older sister, popular Taiwanese actress-host Barbie Hsu, also known as Big S, died on Feb 2 at the age of 48 from pneumonia.
The 46-year-old wrote: “Thank you everyone for remembering my sister Barbie in different ways. The Hsu family expresses respect for all the tributes.”
This was her first time speaking out via her social media since the tragedy.
The death of Barbie Hsu, star of hit Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden (2001) and its sequel the following year, came as a shock to fans as she had seemed well in the days leading up to her death, even attending a wedding celebration in January.
Her pneumonia developed from a bout of influenza while she was on holiday with her family in Japan.
An anonymous netizen and fan, known only as Jiang Er-er on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, posted a clip of a one-minute memorial tribute to Barbie Hsu on a billboard in New York’s Times Square on Feb 11.
The netizen said it cost around 50,000 to 70,000 yuan (RM30,521 to RM42,732) to put up a one-minute clip on the billboard but added that cost did not matter.
“I just wanted to give her my most sincere love and remembrance within the limits of what I can do,” the netizen said.
There have also been billboards with tribute clips of Barbie Hsu in Chinese cities such as Nanjing and Shanghai. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
