Vivian Hsu

Vivian Hsu (Chinese: 徐若瑄; Japanese: ビビアン・スー Bibian Sū; born March 19, 1975 in Taichung, Taiwan) is a renowned singer, actress, and model who has gained remarkable popularity in several countries in East Asia, mainly in China and Japan.

Modelling
As a model, she produced two photobooks: Angel (天使心) and Venus.Angel, published in 1995, was shot in Capri and Sicily.Venus, published on July 7, 1996, was shot in Mexico and had separate runs in Taiwan and Japan.

Vivian's success in modeling achieved its zenith in July 1996 when she was featured on the cover of two Asian-edition Penthouse magazines. Like the photobooks, both these items have become very sought after by Vivian collectors and fans.Vivian has continued to model for designers such as Hang Ten, Gucci and Mode Marie, and has modelled in all three of her brief, autobiographical books: Earth Onigiri (2001), Privacy and Wo Ai Taiwan (2002). In addition, most of her musical albums contain substantial inserts featuring new modelling work.


Music
Vivian released her first solo single in 1995. She released her first full-length album, 天使想 in 1996. Shortly thereafter, she took a speed course in Korean, and released a Korean version of the album titled 天使美少女. Unusually, neither of Vivian's first two albums was sung in her native language.

Vivian's music, especially in her later work, covers a great range of genres. Included are slow love songs, R&B, hard rock, and of course J-pop. She has even dabbled in rap. This, combined with the fact that she is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese makes her a very versatile artist.

Vivian is also an accomplished lyricist. Her lyric-writing talent first gained serious notice when she completed several songs for Taiwan's R&B singer/songwriter Jay Chou. By proving that she's not just another pretty idol, but a very capable artist, Vivian surprised both her critics and adorned fans. She continued to collaborate with Jay on his second and third albums after his triumphant self-titled debut, and co-wrote songs for other pop performers, such as Vanness Wu,Show Luo and Gigi Leung. Her lyric work is much praised for its clever and straightforward simplicity.

Some Jay Chou songs that she wrote lyrics for are as follows:
Adorable Woman 可愛女人
Can't Say 開不了口
Istanbul 伊斯坦堡
Love's Cliff 愛情懸崖
Simple Love 簡單愛
Tornado 龍捲風


Acting
Vivian has appeared in a number of movies and television programs both in Taiwan and in Japan. She appeared in the ambitious 2006 mainland China-Taiwan-Hong Kong collaboration "The Knot", a romance movie that takes place between the CCP takeover of mainland China and the present. Her debut films are 赤裸天使 in 1994 and 魔鬼的天使 in 1995, both rated as Category III movies. Before breaking into the Taiwan acting scene, she starred in Hong Kong's L-O-V-E Love….

In 2006,Vivian played a role in movie人鱼朵朵 The Shoe Fairy of Do Do. The Shoe Fairy is a modern day fairy tale. One which isn't kind to its genre to begin with, highlighting the evil witch and wolf characters and their impending bloody demise in each tale. The Chinese title "Ren Yu Duo Duo" will already hint about the fairy tale from which this movie draws its inspiration from, with "Ren Yu" being mermaid (in this context). Like the Little Mermaid, Dodo (Hsu) looks normal, except that she cannot use her legs. A miraculous operation allowed her to walk again, and slowly she develops an obsession with shoes. Loads of them.