SINGAPORE – When I was in primary school, my form teacher made us journal as part of our homework. I remember very little of the entries, but I remember writing about Meteor Garden (2001 to 2002).

Like many girls my age and older, I was hooked on that hit Taiwanese idol drama. But that was not where I first got to know Taiwanese actress-host Barbie Hsu, who played the series’ poor protagonist Shancai, whose feisty and determined personality got ultra-rich heir Daomingsi (Jerry Yan) to fall in love with her.

It was instead through Taiwanese variety show Guess Guess Guess (1996 to 2011), which she co-hosted with her younger sister Dee Hsu as part of the duo ASOS – they were popularly known as Big S and Little S respectively. She was one of the stars I grew up with, so much a fixture of my childhood entertainment diet that I struggle to remember a time I was not aware of her.

I never imagined I would one day write her obituary, but I did on Feb 3, after Dee confirmed Barbie’s death at the age of 48 from pneumonia during a family holiday in Japan. I have written my fair share of celebrity obituaries in my seven years as an entertainment journalist, but hers was the first I wrote with my hands shaking.

It might have been because I watched the news, which I thought was a hoax, get confirmed in real time. Or possibly because my own big sister caught influenza-related pneumonia over the New Year holiday and spent days in a high-dependency ward before she recovered.

I felt like I had lost someone I knew. When my editor assigned me to write a “10 things to know about Barbie Hsu” listicle, I replied that I know everything about her. I’ve never met her, so this was certainly my parasocial attachment talking, but I think it is true.

My TV-watching tastes shifted as a young teen from Meteor Garden to American dramas like Grey’s Anatomy (2005 to present), but I remained loyal to Taiwanese variety shows well into adulthood.

So, I’ve watched – and rewatched – clips of Guess Guess Guess and 100% Entertainment (1997 to 2024) hosted by Barbie and Dee, devoured every episode of their short-lived culinary show, Gourmet Secrets Of The Sta...