Superstars get superupset when they show up to the same event at the same time in the same clothes.

Chinese uberbabe Zhang Ziyi has long been criticized by Hong Kong tabloids for her questionable taste in fashion. But a few months of living in the United States hitting up celeb parties with her new boyfriend Vivi Nevo has boosted her up the fashion ladder. Last week, however, while attending a party in Shanghai, Zhang committed the cardinal sin of zhuang shan. Just a few hours earlier, Chinese actress Li Bingbing had appeared wearing a similar diamond necklace with an almost identical black dress. The horror! The same clothes at the same location—it's an awkward moment that happens so often to celebrities that Hong Kong tabloids invented a word for it: zhuang shan (撞衫), which literally means “the same clothes bumping into each other.” Having a full slate of parties, red carpet functions and balls to attend, it’s hard for a celebrity to prepare a giant closet of gowns and dresses. Often they wear clothes provided by sponsors themselves. Zhuang shan happens when the PR flak of a fashion brand does too good a job, persuading too many stars to wear the same clothes, or when the manager of an artist does a terrible job, failing to check out the competition.

Zhuang shan also happens because stars are all brand whores. Last year, a beige colored Louis Vuitton dress was worn by Russian model Sasha Pivovarova, Hong Kong actress Vivian Chow and mainland actress/filmmaker Xu Jinglei. Taiwanese singer Coco Lee is also known for her craze for brands. One year at the Oscars, she wore a rainbow-colored Chanel dress that French actress Audrey Tautou also wore. She also has a Dior mini dress shared by Lucy Liu and Cecilia Cheung. “I always want to be dazzling and become the focus of spotlights,” she once quipped. Wonder if she phones up Lucy before putting it on.

The most embarrassing zhuang shan moment occurred on the red carpet last week at the Golden Rooster Awards. When Tony Leung spied another actor wearing the exact the same Dolce & Gabbana suit walking on the carpet ahead of him, he probably wanted to find a hole to hide in. No wonder he was so uptight the whole night even after his girlfriend won a Best Actress award!

Recently, Australian scientists developed a set of intelligent clothing along with intelligent closets that can tell you how often you’ve worn a particular item and what is suitable. If they could just hook it into the Internet and make it wireless then celebs wouldn’t have to worry about zhuang shan-ing each other.

-Luna Lin

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Celebrities are weird people. They cringe at the thought of being caught in the same clothes as another celebrity, but they have no qualms about being caught with another celeb’s significant other. Look at Edison Chan. In 2000, he famously stole Maggie Q away from best friend Daniel Wu and didn’t seem too broken up over it. Maybe the tabloids should invent a word for that: zhuang babe.