Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Jeannie Hsieh 謝金燕: Taiwan's Wonder Woman

An exceptional Taiwanese woman


Xie Jin Yan aka Jeannie Hsieh (or Chinese 謝金燕) is a famous Taiwanese singer and actress and for me an exceptional Taiwanese woman. And you will probably agree with me later. I must say I was not familiar with her until recently. My girlfriend shared one of Jeannie's latest songs with me and asked me to guess how old she was. Well, I would like you to do the same here. Check her latest video to the song Beep Beep Beep (嗶嗶嗶) and then tell me how old do you think she is?


Enjoy "Beep Beep Beep" live...


She looks hot, doesn't she? And those legs are like from a different universe. Well, I suppose your guess was something like 25? 27? I remember mine was 26. Anyhow, to reveal the big secret: Jeannie will be 36 this December! Not only that, she's also a mommy. Amazing, huh?

Xie Jin Yan (
謝金燕)
was born in Kaohsiung on Christmas in 1974. Her father is also a famous Taiwanese artist named Zhuge Liang (豬哥亮, real name Xie Xin Da 謝新達). She entered show business in 1990 at a very young age (she was barely 16). She was chosen "Miss legs" (美腿小姐) in a TV variety show (which is not surprising, since her legs are seemingly endless. She's 170cm tall, so no wonder.) and soon after new opportunities emerged for her. She started to act in movies and drama. She released her first music album in 1993. But she really rose to fame after 2000, when she changed her music style to electronic dance. Her best year was 2005 with many smash hits as well as this year, when she returned with her dance hit Beep Beep Beep (video above), which is sung in Cantonese, Mandarin, Taiwanese and English. She usually sings in Taiwanese (which is similar to Hokkien Chinese) and commonly spoken around Taiwan.

Xie Jin Yan is an exceptional woman, because she's one of those East Asian pop stars, who just keep going even after the dreaded age of 30. Her music style may not be what I would listen to, but I admire her for looking dazzling and remaining popular at age 36 in a genre that's usually dominated by teenagers. Few years ago it was normal that East Asian pop artists ended their careers when they hit 30. But in recent years stars like Lee Hyori, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro go against this trend and they're better than ever before. Maybe that "old wine tastes better" analogy could be applied to these artists here. Anyway, you can check two more videos of Jeannie below.



Could she possibly have the hottest legs in Taiwan? More photos from the concert here>>

How do you like Jeannie Hsieh?

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