Seunghan's Rebranding to XngHan

He is unreal!

I would be remiss if I made this entire blog and never once talked about the absolute craziness that is Seunghans story. This is one that has caused a mass split opinion in the K-pop fandom. It has been the source of so much hate but also so much sympathy. It is an example of a corrupt company and the ugly truth about fandoms. This to me shows the true toxicity that can come from K-pop. It is a truly unfair story, but it is one that maybe shows the dark side of the K-pop industry the best.

I hope this blog maybe reaches all the Seunghan fans and entices more people to support his solo debut because he is so deserving. He was sadly the fate of a corrupt industry and a company that did not have his best interest at heart. I hope that he can succeed and follow his dreams. The fact he has not given up is such a huge feat and I am beyond happy he didn't.

Diving Into the Craziness

As always let us jump into a little backstory before we get into our main topic.

Seunghan originally debuted in a 7-member group on September 4th, 2023, the group was named Riize. He was in the group for about a year until Suenghan left on October 13th, 2024. However, he technically halted activities only two months after their debut. The reason he left was due to the overwhelming amount of hate he was getting because of his personal life before his debut. Rumors were leaked of him being in a relationship prior to his debut. And he was also allegedly seen smoking in Japan.

Truly a visual

Now for people not familiar with K-pop culture this may not seem like a big deal at all but within K-pop this is huge. If you want to hear more about my opinion on this check out my last blog about The Boyz because this is exactly what they are dealing with right now. However, at this point in time Riize was not as developed as The Boyz are so this backlash was really rough on their image. Like I said before image is everything in K-pop and these two scandals are some of the worst that can come out because it is super harmful to members and the group. So, for Riize at that time it was not good.

Even if this image was not good it should have blown over like it does with so many other groups that get blamed for the same things. The deciding factor for whether or not this blows over is dependent on their PR team. However, SM is known to mistreat situations like this and mistreat their Idols. So instead of truly placating the situation by jumping on top of this and denying or issuing a proper apology they acted rash and had Seunghan go on hiatus.

Why is he on Hiatus?

Now let's dive a little deeper into this because this is a reflection on how fan culture can be taken too far. Once again, we are faced with the dilemma that is parasocialism. The idea of having a deep personal connection with someone online. Now I think parasocialism most of the time is harmless but in this case it wasn't. Because of this feeling of connection and jealousy fans were very upset mainly about the dating scandal. The hate got to the point that fans demanded Seunghan be taken out of Riize. This was obviously the worst outcome and if Seunghan himself wanted to step away and process then that was completely understandable, it was a lot to go through. However, I don't think it was entirely his choice. I think a lot of it had to do with the company.

Of course, this is all speculation, but I do think SM had a big hand in Seunghan leaving both times. I think they saw a problem and their first instinct was to just eradicate that problem. Get rid of the problem and you don't really have to deal with it. I am torn about this because on one hand I think taking him out as soon as fans asked led to the rest of their problems down the road. Clearly, they did not care to protect their idol and saw him as a problem to dispose of. In trying to keep the image of the group safe they fed into the negative fan culture and created a situation that could not be repaired. On the other hand, we have seen these situations happen before. Members getting a lot of hate and having to leave until things blow over. Most notably Hyunjin from Stray Kids. So, it is not unheard of, and it can help.

Where I think the problem truly stemmed with this strategy is them not monitoring the hate after Seunghan went on hiatus. Not still trying to deny the claims or protect the artist. It was as if SM had also decided he never existed. It didn't feel like a hiatus, and it was never really treated that way. It was as if he had never been a part of the group, they stopped mentioning him and no fans were given any reassurance he would come back. To me this shows that SM had made up their minds and they saw him as more trouble than was worth it. Even though this could have been an easy fix if they would have handled it properly.

Mind you although Seunhan was given a lot of hate in Korea he had a huge international support system. International fans who are used to a different star culture typically do not care about dating or smoking scandals because our fan culture is different. So, when Seunghan was receiving all this hate international fans were giving him just as much support. This put SM in a hard spot. This is why I think they put him on "hiatus" instead of immediately removing him permanently. They needed to find a way to placate both sides, give Korean fans what they want by having him leave and then give the hope of his return for international fans. I am sure they thought they were geniuses with that one.

However, since they put him on hiatus they couldn't keep him on hiatus forever.

His Inevitable Return

This leads to the true discourse that left the K-pop world in shambles causing a torn fandom. It was so big people who didn't stan Riize had strong opinions on the matter and got involved.

On October of 2024, SM announced that Seungghan would be rejoining Riize. Now I will explain the events and then give my speculations after. After the announcement of his return there was once again a surge of hate that surfaced. Even going as far as people sending traditional funeral wreaths to line the SM building wishing Seunghan death and continuing to want him out of the group. Two days later Seunghan issued a statement saying that he thought it was best if he left the group for good. He claimed it was his decision to leave and that he would focus on his solo career instead. Despite many true fans best efforts, the departure stuck and now he will be debuting as XngHan in late July.

Now let me give my thoughts on these ever so convenient circumstances. first starting off with him coming back, it was inevitable that he had to return. SM couldn't leave him on hiatus forever, but I think even at this point they knew what the outcome would be when he came back. The fact that they didn't have any real measures in place to prevent the hate or protect Seunghan from seeing the hate is proof enough for me that SM had one goal in mind and that was him leaving the group. They had let the OT6 fans grow without really trying to stop it they actually fueled them by treating Seunghan like he had never existed in the first place. Say what you will but they're not stupid SM knows how to play the game they have been around and a part of the big 3 for a long time.

They knew exactly how they were going to play this and exactly how it would play out. They knew as soon as they announced him back hate would surge but also it would please the OT7 fans that had continued supporting him. They knew the hate would be too much and that they would have to officially remove him. Now whether they left all the hate for him to see on purpose and then pushed him to leave or he really wanted to leave is unclear. However, it was just so convenient that right after all that hate was left up, he comes to the decision himself to leave the group. Because now for international fans it looks like, "well at least SM tried to bring him back, but he decided to leave on his own." But international fans are not stupid, and we saw straight through that. Clearly, they had this outcome in mind, and I believe they hoped that would be that. They hoped they could mention a solo career and never act on it, but fortunately fans did not let it go quietly.

Shortly after all this bullshit true fans acted fast, they immediately sent support to SM in the form of flowers and huge billboards. Fans began to boycott Riize until Seunghan was reinstated and even companies in America stopped selling their albums in solidarity. Now personally boycotting is never the smartest move because this could have ended badly. If SM was not afraid to do this to a member they could have punished the whole group. Seen them as more trouble than they were worth but luckily that was not what happened. However, Seunghan did not get reinstated either which I knew would not happen. That decision was final, and the company was not going to double back, it would have looked too bad on them. Instead, they more firmly announced that he was going to debut as a soloist.

All the Support for XngHan!

This news did seem to placate fans and support returned to Riize which sadly is now a 6-member group and will remain that way. Still for a long while it had been radio silence about Seunghans debut but finally after so long an official announcement was made about his debut.

Still, it wasn't even SM who first announced his debut which I wish I could say was surprising. But it does fill me with a little fear with what is to come with him. I hope he is successful and that SM gives him proper publicity, but I don't know if they will.

I do find it interesting how they completely rebranded him though, going from Seunghan of Riize to XngHan the soloist. I think it is smart, give him a whole new brand, separate him from the group. Hopefully it will separate him as his own artist now. It is sad but smart to completely rebrand, shake off the mistreatment of before and start new but not entirely different. I just hope everything else is given proper resources such as choreography, music production, concept, outfits, etc. He deserves so much more than the cards he was dealt.

So, to finish this off please show XngHan a lot of love and support, I will be. This is the sad side of the K-pop industry, and he was an unfortunate victim. I hope in the future we can do better to protect these idols from this same fate, and I hope we can protect him from any future hate he does not deserve.