An MIT graduate, Janet Hsieh (謝怡芬) turned down a place in medical school to become a model. It’s hard not to be in awe of Hsieh, who is also a black belt in taekwondo, a talented violinist and a magazine cover perennial.
But in conversation the Houston, Texas native’s sense of humor and enthusiasm is instantly disarming. It’s easy to see why Hsieh’s Discovery Travel and Living Channel series Fun Taiwan (and spin-off Fun Asia), which recently wrapped up its 11th season, is a hit. Hsieh, who has traveled to more than 40 countries, is getting ready to take over the rest of the world with a new show, tentatively titled “Out and About With Janet,” which will be filmed in the US.
Hsieh was bitten by the travel bug in university after visiting Argentina and Ecuador as a medical volunteer. Once she graduated, she flew to Taiwan to intern as an emergency medical technician in Tianmu. Though the Taiwanese American could speak Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), she had to learn Mandarin from scratch. After a year, Hsieh returned to the US to start medical school — but her plans suddenly changed when an agency she’d filmed a lingerie commercial for invited her back to Taipei.
While she’s now more likely to carry a microphone than a stethoscope, Hsieh, who once planned to join Doctors Without Borders or the Peace Corps, is still passionate about public health. She gets emotional when talking about the children she met while filming a commercial in Cambodia for the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation
(羅慧夫顱顏基金會), which funds cleft lip and palate surgeries, and cites her grandmother, a former missionary, as her hero.
In a phone conversation with the Taipei Times, Hsieh, who was on location for Fun Taiwan in Taitung, spoke about her serendipitous career, what countries she’d like to visit in the future, and how she accidentally took her show into risque territory.
Taipei Times: How did you go from being an medical technician to doing an underwear commercial to hosting a travel show?
Janet Hsieh: [Laughs.] Kind of random, right? It was seriously just life happening. Toward the end of my scholarship, I went to Room 18. There was a special event and I remember thinking, “This is ridiculously expensive. I’m just going to stand outside and watch people.” That’s when a group of people who were speaking English caught my attention and I started talking to them. They turned out to be one of the LA Boyz, Jeff [Huang (黃立成)], and also Van Ness [Wu (吳建豪)]. But I had no idea who they were, so I just chatted with them and we became friends. They asked me if I wanted to go meet with some modeling agencies. I was going back to the States anyway, so I said, “Sure, why not?” It was just for fun, I wasn’t planning on a career.
After a few weeks, a director said, “She has an okay look for a commercial.” It happened to be for an underwear commercial. I remember thinking, oh dear, I’m not so sure if leaving Taiwan having done an underwear commercial is the best way to leave my mark on the country. But then I thought, why the hell not? I made sure it was legitimate and not some sort of cover for bad porn or something. I did it and I went back to the States right afterward. They sent me a copy and I watched it with my mom and dad, who had been very concerned that I was doing an underwear commercial. But they loved it. My mom was like, “Oh, this is really well made, good quality!”
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