Seoul — Believe it or not, doppelgängers exist and this is not the first time that a celebrity has a lookalike. Chinese social media user @wenhoney has gained a lot of attention for looking like Korean actress and singer Lee Ji-eun, popularly known as IU.
Wenhoney is famous on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Both IU and Wenhoney exist on separate servers, according to Mothership.sg on January 27.
Netizens have uploaded Wenhoney’s videos on TikTok and an account with the name Wen Honey has appeared on TikTok. It is not certain if it is the same person behind it. Korean media outlets have pointed out that Wenhoney has adopted certain mannerisms similar to IU. However, there are some netizens who are more sceptical, saying that the resemblance is due to filters, angles and makeup.
Born on May 16, 1993, Lee Ji-eun, known professionally as IU, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress. She signed with Kakao M (formerly LOEN Entertainment) in 2007 as a trainee and debuted as a singer at the age of fifteen with her album Lost and Found. Although her follow-up albums, Growing Up and IU…IM, brought mainstream success, it was after the release of “Good Day” (Korean: 좋은 날), the lead single from her 2010 album Real, that she achieved national stardom.
“Good Day” went on to spend five consecutive weeks at the top position of South Korea’s Gaon Digital Chart, and in 2019 it was ranked number one on Billboard magazine’s 100 Greatest K-Pop Songs of the 2010s.
With the success of her 2011 albums, Real+ and Last Fantasy, IU established herself as a formidable force on the music charts of her native country and further cemented her girl next door image as Korea’s “little sister”.
2011 also saw her first foray into songwriting with “Hold My Hand”, which was written for the television series The Greatest Love. IU’s third full-length album release, Modern Times (2013), showcased a more mature style that marked a departure from her earlier girlish image, with several tracks reaching the top 10 positions on Gaon Digital Chart.
While her subsequent releases, including albums A Flower Bookmark, Chat-Shire, and Palette, continued to deviate from the mainstream K-pop style, IU retained her dominance on music charts. Chat-Shire marked the first time she is credited as the sole lyricist and composer of her own album.