Now a star in the sky: Asteroid named after Barbie Hsu, wife of DJ Koo

DJ Koo and Barbie Hsu

The late Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, wife of DJ Koo of the Korean dance duo CLON, now has an asteroid named after her.

Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily reported that the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature had approved the name Xuxiyuan (Hsu's Chinese name) for asteroid 208663.

The name was proposed by Hong Kong astronomer and former Hong Kong Astronomical Society President Yang Guangyu, who first observed the asteroid in 2002 from the Desert Eagle Observatory in Arizona.

Yang has previously named asteroids he discovered after prominent stars, including Leslie Cheung, Teresa Teng, Andy Lau, Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong.

Hsu rose to fame in 2001 for her role as Dong Shancai in the Taiwanese drama “Meteor Garden.” In Korea, however, she was more widely known as the wife of DJ Koo.

The two reportedly began dating after meeting in Taiwan in 1998, but their relationship ended about a year later because of the distance between them and opposition from their agencies.

More than two decades later, they reconnected following Hsu’s 2021 divorce from Chinese entrepreneur Wang Xiaofei. They married the following year.

Their marriage, however, was tragically short-lived. Hsu died in February last year after contracting influenza complicated by pneumonia while traveling in Japan with her family.

Koo has since suspended his entertainment activities and continued to mourn his wife, regularly visiting her grave at Jinbaoshan Cemetery in Taiwan.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.