Janet Hsieh, Fun Taiwan TV Host

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
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Original Title: Fancy Janet: FUN TAIWAN: skip if you love her

Hi, firstly, don’t want to insult anyone who likes Janet, please leave now.

Personally, I am fed up to here with seeing her everywhere, on every TV commercial playing that stupid violin, and drinking tea in India…The cover of GQ? Come on! She’s about as sexy as a kitchen sponge.

Is it just me or is she an ingratiating, annoying woman who needs to shut up and go sell octopus balls in a night market? Where did she suddenly spring up from anyway? Besides, she says at the beginning of “Fun Taiwan”: “I am Taiwanese born in America, and now I’ve come back to Taiwan to discover my roots.” Uh, OK, how do you come BACK (inferring coming “home” to the place where you were born) to where you aren’t “from”? That’s like your average (European) American saying, “I’m going BACK to France and England with a short trip to Spain and a hop over to Italy to discover my roots.” Please! People would call you an idiot!

Most of my Taiwanese friends say she’s “cute”…I just don’t get it…

All of my foreign friends want to dump her in the Danshui River…

2

:bravo:

Then you can call me your friend too as I most wholeheartedly agree! She just tries too hard (and she ISN’T cute)

btw … my wife also finds her incredibly annoying and she’s Taiwanese

3

I didn’t think she was that bad…don’t like the tongue stud…you can see it a lot. Weird.

but when I saw that contact lense ad…oh my.

I think what happened is that she is an American that is now famous and popular here, and she is trying to copy that whole I’m so cute xiaojie squeek. She’s not cute…she’s propably cooler than the average meimei and she should try to embrace that…

4

It just shows that Taiwanese girls/women, even after growing up abroad still have this childish thing (cute xiaojie) in them … although it could be what battery just posted, she’s playing it …
I’ve seen her first a few years back … was she different then … couldn’t she get a boyfriend and started to play it (cute xiaojie) for that reason …

Anyways, the topics she shows are mostly things I don’t know about Taiwan, even after being here for over ten years … but she could do something about her acting …

But, it’s like with all ‘famous’ Taiwanese … they get milked in every ad imaginable and after a while it’s becoming boring … over exposure is never good …

5

Well the line actually goes ‘Hi I’m Janet and I’m from Texas’. Now it seems ther agent has done a complete turnaround and she’s being pushed as a a pale faced almost local Taiwanese. It helps speaking Taiwanese in Taiwan of course. She intersperses the Chinese with the English which is what Taiwanese think is great for learning English and watching a travel show.
Still I think she does have talent with the camera, she’s not the worst out there and Ive seen some good spots on her ‘fun Taiwan’ show. All the shows only comment on the good things of Taiwan but I guess it’s helpful in creating a love of country here, it’s good for the environment. Taiwan does have some great spots.
Actually there are a couple of Taiwanese travel presenters that are very funny and incisive, especially one guy who goes to Africa and pacific islands a lot (small guy with tatoos, shaved head). He often comments on the sad state of affairs of the local people and how even the ‘hua chao-overseas Chinese’ that guide him around seem to be so rich compared to the locals.

It’s funny how people ‘bao hong- explode famous’ here in Taiwan. Look at S.H.E and the the teen queen Rainie. S.H.E alone have been estimated to do over 100 ads in the last couple of years.
Janet will make her money 100s millions NT after becoming a ‘Taiwanese’ for a few years and then move on back to US or somewhere else.

What I would love to see if somebody in Janet’s position going on talk shows and talking honestly about the good and bad points of Taiwan, writing a book about her honest opinions, instead of only milking the system for a couple of years (of course she is entitled to earn her money and deserves it, just can do more from her position). Unfortunately Taiwanese are unbelievably sensitive about anybody pointing out the obvious living quality and environmental deficits and just don’t want to hear this. Look at the TOTAL absence of any documentaries or analytical reporting and the 1001 chat shows where foreigners talk about what they like to eat or funny things here in Taiwan. What Janet could do is use her position to talk a bit more about near extinction of Taiwan black bear or the overdevelopment of certains areas like Kending, this kind of thing, try and embarrass the government more.

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Why would you want to do that to her? She’s hot. :raspberry:

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Tongue stud??? I missed that. Personally I think she’s very good looking, but the playing the bimbo routine does my head in. From what I hear she’s in the middle of a medical doctorate so is obviously very bright. But I just switch off whenever she’s on the TV.

She’s probably making a fair bit of cash doing this stuff and will eventually disappear into obscurity again. Unless of course she starts believing her own hype and trys to make it in the states, in which case she’ll probably crash and burn. She has no talent outside of planet taiwan.

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Ahem… Is this the Janet you are talking about?

youtube.com/watch?v=saRf6sLNAk8

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Oh, right. A TV bimbo, hired presumably for her ability to talk with her face stretched into a permanent teeth-baring rictus. I’m sure she’ll go far.

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Knock yourself out

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[quote=“SugarBunz”]Hi, firstly, don’t want to insult anyone who likes Janet, please leave now.

Personally, I am fed up to here with seeing her everywhere, on every TV commercial playing that stupid violin, and drinking tea in India…The cover of GQ? Come on! She’s about as sexy as a kitchen sponge.[/quote]

I think the whole phenomenon is a little strange, although I the she’s kinda cute, in an Olive Oyle (Popeye’s girl) sort of way.

Specifically, I find it a little weird how language is treated in the show. She speaks to the camera in native fluency English, such that over 90% of the local audience cannot understand what she is saying without the aid of subtitles. Then, she speaks Mandarin-- and sometimes Taiwanese-- to most of the people she encounters during the show. The English bits are subtitled, but not the Chinese bits, throwing any doubts out the window about whether or not this is meant to be a show viewed internationally. The show, to me, seems to cater to a fetish-like curiosity concerning English and Chinese diaspora communities.

I was thinking the same thing. IMO, I think people all too often confuse CULTURE and RACE and often refer to one when they mean the other; or perhaps mistakenly believe that they are one and the same. Culture is a set of behaviors; race is a set of physical characteristics. It does not follow that, because one shares the physical characteristics of a group of people that they must, too, share a common set of behaviors, regardless of where one was born and raised. To believe so, is racism. I think that many children of immigrants in settler nations mistakenly believe there is something to be reclaimed in their parents’ country of origin. Even more weird is when people in these source countries believe that one of their own is returning to them when someone born, raised and educated in a different country shows up on their soil. Because of the common racial characteristics, the completely different culture is often not recognized.

In short, I find the Taiwanese fascination with this American blabbering English at the camera to be a little strange. There’s something off with the premise of the show.

No, actually this happens with many Caucasians as well.

[quote=“SugarBunz”]Most of my Taiwanese friends say she’s “cute”…I just don’t get it…

All of my foreign friends want to dump her in the Danshui River…[/quote]

Not surprising, the show is very much for local consumption only.

12

Wow Mr. Sunshine!

She needs more cow bell.

Check. She needs A cowbell.

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I have friends who are close to her. Apparently she’s really nice.

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[quote]Ahem… Is this the Janet you are talking about?

youtube.com/watch?v=saRf6sLNAk8[/quote]

Yeah, that’s her. I thinks she’s ok – her cheery disposition and clean, healthy, personable, youthful image are suitable for that kind of show. :idunno: I personally don’t think she’s hot enough to rate being in all these ads, especially the still shots for beauty products, because her attractiveness really comes through more in live stuff due to her personality. But there are plenty of unattractive local TV stars endorsing products – I’d certainly rather see her face on the side of a bus than Peng Qiaqia’s mug.

15

Is she that big-haired obasan that advertises kitchenware? If so shudder

I should point out as well that one of Janet’s ads is dubbed

16

Oh…her.

I thought this was about that buck naked wai guo babe on all the billboards and the rotating bed commercials on TV. The one with the lousy blonde wig.

This one…feh…she’ll milk it for all the locals are paying her and return to the USA where her ‘Taiwan creds’ will help her land a job at Hooters in Orange County.

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Is she that big-haired obasan that advertises kitchenware? If so shudder

I should point out as well that one of Janet’s ads is dubbed[/quote]

I thought it was dubbed too, but someone told me it was her own voice dubbed over the original.

Peng Qiaqia is the pockmarked guy with the tiny squinty eyes who looks like a gangster. Can’t seem to find a good pic for you though. Here’s a bad pic:

Anyway, Janet seems like a nice kid. Yeah, she’s overexposed right now, but I don’t see any reason to be so harsh on her. I bet she’s just a nice ordinary gal.

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so who is the obasan then? She seems to be one of those leopard-skin clad harridans that has some how got lucky…

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She seems like a nice enough person to me.

20

She graduated from MIT. I think she’ll be able to do slightly better than landing a job at a Hooters in Orange County.

I don’t have a TV now so I’m probably missing out on the whole overexposure angle, but the couple of times I’ve caught her show, I thought it to be well done. Her disposition comes across as very American: enthusiastic, very wlling to chat with new people, and self-confident. I’d say she’s a better role model for young girls than any other Taiwanese female on TV.

I saw her once filming a segment while I was taking some pictures at a fish market in Nanfang’ao. I was too bashful and didn’t go over and say hello. I wish I had.

She’s got a dream job and doing very well at it. More power to her.