[K-POP] Heeseung re-branding as EVAN + reactions

Lee Heeseung—who I mentioned in my previous blog—has officially opened up a new Instagram account with the username h_evva_n and the display name EVAN. This username is a play on the word 'heaven', and the name he will be using as a soloist then becomes Evan Lee, another play on the word 'heavenly'. An official fandom name has not yet been released.

Personally, I think the name and the wordplay works well. I hope Heeseung's solo career prevails now that he is able to release what he wants to (within reason), and that he is satisfied with any and all media and content he releases in the future. I will definitely be checking out his solo music releases.

That being said... I am side-eyeing anyone who complains extensively about Heeseung going by EVAN as a soloist.

1. Heeseung is associated with Enhypen, meaning if Heeseung wants to make a name for himself outside of the group, he'll need to brand himself as something else that is separate from his Korean name.
   
   
2. He has released content/media under the name Evan before. Why would he then not use it again for his other projects?
   
   
3. Evan is the name that he chose for himself when he was younger, and there are a lot of memories and meaning attached to the name. It makes sense why he would move forward with it.
   
   
4. The wordplay. Evan on its own may feel lacklustre, but there is meaning behind the name choice, and it helps give Heeseung an image that he can build upon throughout his career.

The amount of weird comments I've seen now about this is kind of irritating me. Why does it matter that Heeseung is going by an English/Western name instead of a Korean name? You can still call him Heeseung, EVAN is just another name and another form of branding that he'll be using from this point onwards. It's not as if his legal name will suddenly disappear.

I've seen comments online about him using a "generic ass white boy name" and I genuinely cannot see it as anything less than a micro-aggression, honestly. Even if the name is technically generic—which, again, is subjective and not a universal opinion—and associated with white men, seeing people comparing an asian man to whiteness is... hm. It puts a bad taste in my mouth considering how often asian people are discredited as people of colour.

That's not to say you cannot dislike it, as living beings everyone has the right to feel how they wish to. However, the reasoning behind why some individuals are complaining definitely feel superficial and nitpicky; there are many k-pop soloists who rebranded themselves with different names upon leaving their respective groups, why does the name being Western matter? If it were a Korean name, would they still be complaining? I don't think so.

This all just feels so unnecessary. K-pop fans, please can we complain about something meaningful.