Woman spots Zhang Linghe lookalike near Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
A woman in Singapore thought she had struck celebrity-spotting gold after seeing a man who looked almost exactly like Chinese actor Zhang Linghe near Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.
As it turned out, the man was not the actor at all, but a Taiwanese tourist who happened to bear a striking resemblance to him.
Source: @chrylxong on TikTok
OP thought she spotted Zhang Linghe
TikTok user @chrylxong, or Cheryl, shared the amusing encounter in a video posted on 12 Sept.
In the clip, she recalled how she initially thought luck was very much on her side when she spotted the man near the temple.
“Sian, I thought I was really, like, so lucky to see Zhang Linghe, you know?” she said.
@chrylxong a win is a win #zhanglinghe TWIN🙂
At the time, she was holding joss sticks and preparing to pray when the familiar-looking face caught her attention.
“When I held the joss sticks up, I saw him and got a shock!” she said.
Man turns out to be Taiwanese tourist
Despite the uncanny resemblance, the man was not, in fact, the ‘Pursuit of Jade’ star.
Netizens soon identified him as a Taiwanese lookalike, and the man himself later appeared in the comments of Cheryl’s Instagram post to clear things up.
In his comment, he humbly insisted that Zhang was “way more handsome” than him, and explained that it was his first time visiting Singapore.
He added that a friend had brought him to the well-known temple along Waterloo Street.
Translation: Oh my God, that’s me! I’m not Zhang Linghe. He’s way more handsome than me. It was just my first time in Singapore, and my friend took me to pray at a well-known local temple.
Source: Instagram
While Cheryl did not end up meeting the actual actor, she seemed more than happy to take the unexpected encounter as a consolation prize.
She captioned her post “a win is a win”, used the hashtag #zhanglinghe, and jokingly called the lookalike his “TWIN”.
Source: @bben89 on Instagram
Netizens split over just how similar they look
The resemblance also had netizens doing a double take.
One commenter said the pair “actually look similar”.
Source: TikTok
Another TikTok user appeared equally unsure, wondering whether Zhang had really made an appearance in Singapore.
Source: TikTok
Not everyone was convinced, though. One commenter felt that comparing the man to Zhang was an “insult”.
Source: TikTok
Another netizen identified the man as “a Taiwanese dessert seller” known for looking like the actor.
Source: TikTok
Similar outfit made the resemblance even more convincing
Speaking to MS News, Cheryl, 25, said she spotted the lookalike at about 11.03am on 11 Sept.
“I was quite shocked because, for a moment, I genuinely thought it was Zhang Linghe,” the part-time real estate agent said.
What made the resemblance even more convincing was his outfit.
Cheryl said the man was wearing almost the exact same combination Zhang Linghe had been seen in before: a yellow shirt layered over a plain white top.
“I also noticed that some people around him were taking photos, which made me think even more that it could actually be him,” she added.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Cheryl told MS News that she visits Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple fairly often and had gone there that morning to pray as it was the first day of the lunar month.
Her suspicions only began to creep in after she noticed something rather un-celebrity-like about the scene: “I started having doubts after realising that the man didn’t have any security around him.”
She later checked with her friends, who are also Zhang Linghe fans, and they confirmed that the mystery man was simply a very convincing lookalike.
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Featured image adapted from @zhanglinghe__1230 on Instagram and @chrylxong on TikTok.
