According to some forum posts and other social media posts, some have alleged that the People's Action Party (PAP) candidate, Shawn Huang Wei Zhong, "recently changed his surname" from Ingkiriwang to contest for the general election.

Allegedly changed surname

This comes after Huang was accused of having a bad attitude while he was serving as the parade commander back in 2018 at The Float @ Marina Bay.

However, he has since addressed the accusation:

The former fighter pilot was also addressed by his Ingkiriwang surname when he was still serving the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), as seen in these Facebook posts from 2015 and 2018:

Family has been Huang for 'many generations'

In a doorstop session following his introduction as a new PAP candidate on June 26, he was asked by a reporter what he would prefer to be known as since he has been previously referred to as Shawn Ingkiriwang.

He said that he prefers to be known as Huang Wei Zhong Shawn, which he shares is what he is known as "officially", or simply just as Shawn Huang.

Explaining the history of his surname, he said that his family name has always been Huang.

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

"For many generations, my family has always been Huang. My great-grandfather had to use the surname Ingkiriwang when he was in Indonesia.

When I was very young, my parents decided to stick to our heritage and roots, which is Huang."

More detailed explanation

At 7:18pm on June 28, Huang shared a Facebook post that went into further detail about the change in his name.

He clarified that he was born in Singapore and is an ethnic Chinese, since others have asked about this.

His great-grandfather adopted Ingkiriwang as the family name while in Indonesia, so when he was born in Singapore, he was registered as Ingkiriwang Shawn Wei Zhong.

Later in 1989, his parents did a deed poll to change his surname back to Huang.

When he was in Primary Six and applied for his NRIC, he was told that he had to use the name on his birth certificate, not his deed poll name.

He assumed this was accurate, and so used Ingkiriwang for his IC. However, he said that he has since looked into the matter again, and confirmed that information was inaccurate. He could have used the name "Huang" when applying for his IC.

So he decided to change it back to Huang, which was what his parents had intended all along. He added:

"So that is the full story of my name, and I know that many Singaporeans’ names have had their own journeys. I am not shy about any aspect of my heritage - my grandfather taking on a new name in Indonesia, and my parents changing my name back to Huang when I was young."

You can see the full post below:

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Top image from PAP