Sunday, June 5, 2011

Janet Hsieh publicizes my critique on her Facebook page - and her fans rush to her defense!


"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Friederich Nietzsche

"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth." - Gandhi

Hi all,
Amazingly, Janet Hsieh herself posted the link to my critique of her on her Facebook page, to see what her fans thought of it! Have a look:

https://www.facebook.com/janethsiehonline/posts/156929781040357

In it, she wrote regarding me and my critique:

"I know I'm just adding fuel to the fire, but this seems to be what Winston wants as he's edited and posted it a couple times now, so here goes. I'll let you read his article and decide for yourself. (It would be nice if he would at least get the name of my show right... it's "Fun Taiwan!" Thanks Winston Wu, "a truly unique and remarkable freethinking Asian American." http://janet-hsieh-sucks.blogspot.com/"

I must say I'm quite surprised. I would have thought that she would have just ignored this blog. Usually celebrities ignore online criticism of them. So why would she draw attention to it? Perhaps since mine is the first critique of her, it stood out as an exception. Or perhaps she gets off a little on the controversy? Or maybe she felt insecure and needed reassurance from her fans? Or, possibly she did it to indirectly get her fans to defend her and do her own dirty work for her (since after all, celebrities cannot afford to get involved in any cyber warfare since they have a lot to lose from it). Interesting...

Then, when a hundred of her fans came to her defense and dissed me in the comments section, she thanked them, saying:

"It was very interesting to read all these comments. Thanks everybody! i hate to think that I've just helped him add at least another 102 hits on his blog, but I think he needs a bit of a confidence boost. I guess it's really true when they say: you know you've made it when you have somebody creating, not one, but TWO blogs hating on you."

Hmm... well thank you for the "confidence boost" Janet. I appreciate it :) I hope that my critique made you feel special too :)

FYI Janet: The reason I created two blogs about you, one on Blogger and the other on Wordpress, is that those two blogging platforms rank the highest in Google search engines. Sometimes Wordpress outranks Blogger, and vice versa. I know from past experience. Hence, having two of the highest ranking blog platforms means that if one slips down the search engine rankings, the other may show up higher. It's a simple case of maximizing search engine visibility. I am experienced in search engine optimization (SEO) and this is one of the tricks. Hope that clears up the mystery for you. And btw, there is a third copy of the critique of you under my "Intellectual Expat" blog as well, which contains 20+ comments. So technically, there are THREE copies of that critique of you online.

Also Janet, I do not "hate" you. Why would I? I merely wrote a critique of you and your show. Nowhere in my critique did I write, "I hate Janet Hsieh." You simply interpreted it as hate.

Interestingly, some of her fans reviewed my critique on their blogs and defended Janet too. Here they are:

http://exercisingmyfreedomofspeech.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/in-defense-of-janet-hsieh-part-1/
http://rosenfall.livejournal.com/3830.html
http://lucielukes.blogspot.com/2011/06/open-letter-to-winston-wu.html

How funny. To the owner of the "Exercising My Freedom of Speech" blog, let me tell you this: You defending Janet is not going to get you laid with her, nor will it win you any points with her. She doesn't care about you personally, nor does she care about her other fans. She just humors you to keep up her popular image. Deep down, she cares nothing for you. That is the brutal truth. Read the revision of my initial post about Janet. I've expanded it with a description of her personality, and you will see what I mean.

Anyhow, here is my response to Janet Hsieh's airheadish fans who dissed me:

- First, sorry Janet that I reversed the name of your show, "Fun Taiwan". Thank you for alerting me to that. I have fixed it in my blogs.

- Second, she did not reject me. I have never met her nor corresponded with her. She is not my type either and does not measure up to my standards. hahaha

- Third, I did not write harsh words about her or attack her. I am not her enemy. I simply wrote an honest critique of her and gave my assessment of her. I do not see anything unique, original or special about her, and I find her show and personality style to be fake, contrived and plastic, and her jokes and antics to be cheesy and corny. That is my honest impression of her. That's all. I do not see how that is harsh. Every public figure and celebrity receives criticism. It comes with the territory. Why should Janet Hsieh be exempt from it? Even Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt receive criticism on the web, so why can't Janet Hsieh?

In my view, Janet Hsieh is WAY overrated and treated much better than she deserves and acts way higher than she actually is. She has not done anything to deserve such a "Goddess status". No way. Her personality and behavior are not even authentic. Sheesh. Why can't I point that out? Why is she "uncriticizable"? Other celebrities receive online criticism. Why should she be exempt?

- Fourth, calling me a coward and saying that Janet Hsieh has courage is ludicrous and backwards. It takes real courage to stand up to a crowd or herd, which is what I've done by publishing this blog and standing up to you guys. Very few people have the guts to stand up to a crowd or to a majority of people. It's much easier to follow the herd and spout something airheadish like "Janet is oh so wonderful!" to keep in line with the herd. The following wise and relevant quotes apply:

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Frederich Nietzsche

"Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone." - Ayn Rand


"Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion." - Thornton Wilder

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."� - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

- Fifth, yes, admittedly, one of my reasons in writing this critique was to get publicity. Why not? Every writer likes to get publicity. I happen to be good at critiques and debunking things. See here for a list of my debunking articles. As you can see, Janet is not the first thing that I've critiqued. So why not? Just because one of my aims was to get publicity doesn't mean that what I wrote was dishonest, since my critique still reflects my honest opinions. And as you can see in the comments section of my critique of Janet, some people agree with me. Anyhow, since I am seemingly the "first person to ever write a critique of Janet Hsieh", I guess I could add that to my list of unique accomplishments... But I won't...

- Sixth, am I jealous of Janet Hsieh? Sure, who wouldn't be? She gets everything handed on a silver platter, even though her friendships are superficial and shallow. She gets pampered better than Julia Roberts did in "Pretty Woman".

But that doesn't mean that my critique is dishonest. Far from it. I am a truth seeker, not a conformist like Janet and 99.99 percent of Asians are. So my words and actions are far more genuine and authentic. A truth seeker seeks his/her own truth, whereas a conformist sees truth as whatever authority says and whatever the majority agree upon. In that sense, I have far more credibility than Janet does.

Nor does it mean that Janet Hsieh should be exempt from criticism. Why should she be? Every other celebrity receives criticism, so why shouldn't she? There are two sides to every story after all.

Besides, there is nothing special about her. She hasn't done anything worthy of fame. There's nothing unique about her either. She is simply media hyped and pampered, overinflated and overrated. All she did was "ride with the waves" and received everything on a silver platter after that. So why not inject some reality into her reputation and put up a blog to counterbalance the warped scales a little? What's wrong with that? Every celebrity has their critics. Why shouldn't she? Why leave such a fake person on such a high pedestal?

- Seventh, you fans that dissed me and asked, "Who is Winston Wu?" could have easily found out about me if you had just looked over the key links about me in my About Me page. If you did, you would have been more appreciative of who I am. In fact, one of Janet's fans, Mike Price of ThinkTaiwan.com, checked me out by following my links and ended up appreciating me and thinking that I am "cool after all". Also, those of you who didn't see "anything intellectual about me" have not really read my work. If you had, you'd see that it is among the most freethinking and aware material out there. Again, I invite you to take a look at my articles, treatises, and books:

http://www.happierabroad.com/articles.php
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm

And look at the quotes about me vs. the shallow airheadish quotes about Janet that she receives from her superficial fans:

http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Quotes.htm
http://www.happierabroad.com/FreethinkingAsian.htm
http://www.happierabroad.com/testimonials.php
http://www.happierabroad.com/Hero_Inspiration.htm

In contrast, look at the airheadish comments she receives from her superficial fans:

http://www.facebook.com/janethsiehonline

Furthermore, look at the airheadish comments that Janet herself made on her Facebook page on June 6, 2011 regarding her new book "Traveling with 100 Toothbrushes". This is how an all American valley girl talks, not an educated classy intellectual. Dang. lol

http://www.facebook.com/janethsiehonline
"TAIPEI!!!!!!!!!! so hot hot HOT! y'all are the BEST! thank yOooooou so much. Thanks to everybody for all your support!!! My book is going to number ONE!!"

Gee, how modest and down to earth she sounds here... Not! Such words are written by true airheads. Not that I am any more modest, but hey, at least I have a lot of truly intellectual and meaningful material to back up my accomplishments, whereas all Janet has is media hype and airheadish antics.

Anyhow, peace out for now.

10 comments:

  1. I have to say I stumbled upon your website while google-ing Janet Hsieh and I find it very refreshing, truthful and eye-opening. Nice critique out there for the unfortunate masses of cut-paste plastic-fantastic, bobble-headed, too tanned Chinese girls who happen to make it big cos' most people are simple airheads who cannot discern fact from fiction or fakery :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. I'm glad you see the truth. In the Western world, down to earth authentic type of people have become misfits. That says a lot about how fake, plastic and dysfunctional Western society has become. And unfortunately, that is slowly creeping into Taiwan and other parts of Asia as well. It speaks volumes about the insanity of the world, when down to earth sincere types like me have to feel like misfits.

      It also speaks volumes when someone so fake and annoying with nothing substantive or meaningful to say, gets so much publicity and popularity by airheads. You should see the comments by her fans on her facebook profile. They are all totally airheadish.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for your insightful comment. I've created a new post and quoted your comment in it. You can see it here:

      http://janet-hsieh-sucks.blogspot.tw/2012/07/janet-hsieh-and-failure-of-taiwanese.html

      Delete
  2. I had nothing else to do and I decided to look up the "unique woman" Janet Hsieh after hearing her ad where she is selling the latest "health supplement" and I found this blog (and your other one as well).

    I should start out by saying I am an American expat who is married to a local Taiwanese woman. 10 years of marriage going strong, and we have 2 boys.

    I too find Janet a little too-phoney for my tastes. She seems like a model (which she is, apparently) who was offered a job in front of a camera, and she took this job to further her career (possibly back to the USA???).

    The series always shows everything about Taiwan in a wonderful light and how fabulous places are here in Taiwan. Yes, there are some nice places, but I have been to a few of the places she has been to and they ain't that good looking. The look good on the camera due to how they film things, yet if you get beyond the range of the camera you will see most are not that great, and some are downright bad.

    As for Janet, she will do and probably say anything due to either what her boss tells her what to say or what will help further her career.

    If Janet has any courage, she should just report things as they are and not try to embelish them. Granted, a lot of travel shows are like this, such as the former "Lonely Planet"/now "Global Trekker" shows. If you ever read the books about behind-the-scenes-of-"Lonely Planet," you will be amazed at what the support staff go through and what is not shown on the televsion shows.

    By the way, did you see te You Tube video where Janet is recruiting people to join her on their show? Only approximately 1900 people veiwed the video (including me). Boy, that went over REAL WELL.

    As far as Janet goes, I do not know her so I am only basing on my observations of her "show" and of the various articles I have read of her. And I must say I am none too impressed with her. I feel she is just a somewhat model (only able to get a lot work here in Taiwan and just a tiny amount int he USA as she would be a dime a dozen" model in the USA). My wife flat-out cannot stand her as she knows A LOT of places Janet has been to and calls "B.S." on a lot of what she promotes on her show.

    As for the comments on Janet's Facebok profile, I thnk they reflect the same type of dribble that Hollywood stars get from their fans. The fans only see what is shown on the TV and/or what the "star" (or the star's PR person) want people to see. So let's see what people write after Janet gets caught in a "compromising position." Then we shall see the real Janet Hsieh come out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your insightful comment. I've created a new post and quoted your comment in it. You can see it here:

      http://janet-hsieh-sucks.blogspot.tw/2012/07/janet-hsieh-and-failure-of-taiwanese.html

      Delete
  3. Winston,

    I found your page because in the past 2 years I've been in Taiwan, I have seen multiple commercials with an annoying girl as the spokesperson.

    One of the commercials showed her English and Chinese name and googling her brought me to this page.

    I'm not sure what it is about her that makes me dislike her, as I've thankfully never had to watch her Fun Taiwan program. Maybe it's her ABC accent or maybe you really are right and she sounds/acts too "fake."

    Watching her 15 second commercials is already too much for me. I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who feels the same way about her. It's unfortunate that she is successful here just based on her appearance and the fact that she is an ABC. I find the local girls more appealing.

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    Replies
    1. Wow why did you decide to Google her? Usually people don't Google annoying people.

      I felt the same way, that there was something annoying about her that I couldn't put a finger on. Maybe it's because she is fake and represents something impossible which is an insult to our intelligence?

      I have an ABC accent too, but I act very authentic and down to earth, and the content of what I say is intellectually-oriented, so I'm nothing like her. You can listen to my interviews on HappierAbroad.com to see what I mean.

      I agree that local girls are more sweet and innocent. Janet's personality is over the top and very inauthentic. I guess as HL Mencken said, people prefer fakeness over authenticity, which is sad and speaks badly about the human race.

      Generally, simple zombie-like people like Janet Hsieh, whereas intellectuals and thinkers don't.

      Delete
  4. The nutter is strong in this one.

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  5. You get great success for leeching-off Janet's popularity. Google-ing her gives your wbepage as one of the top hits. Well done, hats off!

    Like Russell Peters always says... "Whatever makes you happy..."

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  6. Wow I thought I was alone on this. I'm glad finally someone decided to share this thought in public. Dont mind us asian countries or even take us seriously. We take in everyone despite how untalented they are just because they had something western in them. Tell someone you're from "overseas", everyone hear lose their mind.

    ReplyDelete