She was cancelled for wearing fake designer clothes – barely considered a sin in the West, but it destroyed Song Ji-a’s career in her homeland. The scandal however wasn’t just another tale of a cancelled celebrity – it tapped into a deeper social angst felt by young South Koreans.
The moment she appeared on Netflix’s hit Korean dating show Single’s Inferno, she turned heads.
Song Ji-a, a beauty influencer in her 20s, was the alluring screen siren. As she stepped down the path towards the other contestants, the cameras zoomed in, and the music slowed.
She quickly became known as the fashionable ‘it’ girl. And she was popular with the boys.
Warning: There are plot spoilers ahead.
Ji-a received the most date invites, and the most requests for intimate walks. The show even presented one lovesick candidate waiting for hours in the sun for her return.
In the finale, she had three of the show’s five men lined up on a beach vying for her hand. She was the breakout star.
The social media influencer had already been popular in South Korea prior to the show. But her following soared after her Netflix debut – to 3.7 million followers on Instagram and nearly two million on YouTube.
That first week of January 2022 represented the peak of her fame. Her downfall came soon after.
Internet sleuths began to pick her apart. They accused her of wearing fake designer clothes. They seized on a pink Chanel knit that was slightly the wrong shade.
Netizens pointed out other elements of her wardrobe – and within days she had to respond to the allegations.
Song Ji-a admitted that she had worn knock-offs. But she claimed to have not known they were copies, saying she had bought them because they looked “pretty”.
The flimsy explanation failed to quell the rage.
Netizens delved further into her background, poring over her previous YouTube videos. They earmarked suspect goods and questioned whether she owned the luxury apartment she lived in.
And then there were the Chinese videos, clips where she said she was learning Mandarin, and where she referred to the national Korean dish kimchi as pao cai, a Chinese term for pickled vegetables.
Fans accused her of pandering to the Chinese market, with some even calling her a traitor.
Other Korean TV shows began editing out her cameos. And her celebrity friends, other actors and influencers, deleted their own Instagram pictures showing them hanging out with Ji-a.
A week after her first apology, Ji-a posted another video where she said she “deeply regretted her actions”, calling herself “pathetic”.
