Everything About PAP’s Shawn Huang Surname Controversy, Which Led to Him Posting a Clarification on Facebook (Again)

Unless you’ve been staying off Facebook for the last two days, you’d probably heard about Shawn Huang.

He was accused of “throwing food” at two servicemen in the 2018 NDP rehearsal but took to Facebook to clarify what happened.

Well, he’s now back on Facebook to clarify a new controversy, this time surrounding his surname.

Everything About PAP’s Shawn Huang Surname Controversy, Which Led to Him Posting a Clarification on Facebook (Again)

The internet strikes again, this time alleging that Shawn Huang has “recently changed his surname” from Ingkiriwang to Huang to join GE2020.

He was also identified as Ingkiriwang in a 2018 Facebook post by NDPeeps:

As well an RSAF 2015 post congratulating him as one of the recipients of the Lee Kuan Yew scholarship:

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My Family Has Always Been Using The Surname, ‘Huang’

On 26 June, when he was introduced as a new PAP candidate, was asked by a reporter on which surname he would prefer to be known as.

Shawn Ingkiriwang, as he was previously known as, or Shawn Huang?

He had said that his family had been using the surname, Huang, for generations, and he is officially known as Huang Wei Zhong Shawn or Shawn Huang.

He explained that his great-grandfather had to use the surname, Ingkiriwang, when he was in Indonesia.

His parents had decided ‘stick to our heritage and roots’ when he was ‘very young’, and gave him the surname Huang instead.

“I Only Recently Knew My Surname Change Is ‘Valid'”

On 28 Jun 2020, Shawn Huang took to his own Facebook page to clarify further on his surname controversy.

He clarified that he is a Singapore Chinese and a citizen by birth.

When his great-grandfather migrated to Indonesia, he had gone by the name, Huang.

However, in 1966, there was apparently trouble in the region and his family adopted Ingkiriwang as their name.

This was the reason why, when he was born in Singapore in 1982, he was registered as “Ingkiriwang Shawn Wei Zhong”.

However, in 1989, when he was about seven years old, his parents changed his surname back to Huang.

As for why he had been using Ingkiriwang even in 2018 (refer above to the RSAF post), he implied that he thought his deed poll name (Huang) was “invalid” as told to him in primary six when he was applying for NRIC.

It was only recently when he checked again, did he know his deed poll name was valid all along, which was why he started using his legal surname “Huang” again.

In other words, here’s what he’s trying to say: yes, his surname was changed but no, it wasn’t for GE2020.

You can read his clarification post below:

While it might seem like it, not all PAP candidates are receiving negative attention online.

Desmond Tan, in a refreshing change, was commended for his attitude online and someone even said that he is a good soccer player.

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