While there are plenty of doppelgängers around the world, it’s not every day when you see a group of doppelgängers making a living out of, well, being doppelgängers.
And if you’re wondering what makes this particular group of doppelgängers in China so special, it’s that their members all allegedly look like different Chinese celebrities like JJ Lin and Wang Yibo.
Also, their group name is ESO, a play on the K-Pop boy group “EXO” that some of us might be familiar with.
Spoiler alert: Some of the members also “look like” several former and current members of EXO.
The members have also adopted stage names that sound similar to the actual celebrities.
For example, ex-EXO member Luhan’s doppelgänger is called Luha, while the name of fellow ex-EXO member Huang Zitao’s doppelgänger is Huang Zicheng.
JJ Lin’s doppelgänger adopted the name Lin Junjue, which is extremely close to JJ’s actual Chinese name, Lin Junjie.
Other members have also done the same, with EXO member Lay Zhang’s doppelgänger being called Zhang Yixi, which is a twist on Zhang’s Chinese name, Zhang Yixin.
As for Chinese actor Wang Yibo, his doppelgänger’s stage name is Wang Erbo since “yi” means one and “er” means two in Chinese.
ESO Retiring Stage Names
However, despite their amusing antics on Chinese social media platforms such as Douyin, as well as their odd similarity to the well-known celebrities, they recently announced that they will be retiring their old stage names and adopting new ones.
The group also uploaded a video on their Douyin account to apologise for using copycat versions of the celebrities’ names, and promised that they would not use them in the future.
As of now, it has been announced that Huang Zicheng will be going by Zhang Zicheng, Wang Erbo by Zhao Dabo, Lin Junjue by Zeng Dejue and Zhang Yixi by Zhang Xixi.
Netizens’ Reactions
After the group announced the change of their stage names, Chinese social media was taken by storm, with the incident making it onto the list of top-searched topics on Chinese social media site Weibo.
Even though there were fans of the group who expressed their support and claimed that the members did nothing wrong, there were also netizens who enquired if ESO would be changing their group name.
According to one netizen, the group would still be “tricking” others if they did not change their group’s name.
Some even felt that it was ridiculous that such an incident could make it to the list of top-searched topics on Douyin.
On the other hand, there were also pretty die-hard fans who stood up for their idols, with one netizen even claiming that “Luha” is much more good-looking than the actual Luhan.
For the K-Pop fans, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Change of Stage Names Possibly to Continue Career
Previously, there were lawyers who said that ESO technically did not break any laws despite imitating various popular celebrities and a popular K-Pop group’s name.
However, there were also other lawyers who said that the group’s actions could count as “counterfeiting” or”causing confusion” within the market on purpose, and that the group should bear the relevant legal responsibility.
Apart from that, some also speculated that social media platforms like Douyin would suspend the group’s accounts if they continued to imitate popular celebrities, and that this was what prompted them to issue their apology.
Featured Image: Douyin (@凌达乐)
