Some people will struggle in the best meals, but this one really takes the cake.
Asian media reported this week that approximately 150 insatiable sushi fans in Taiwan have legally changed their names to “Salmon” as part of a restaurant promotion, according to Taipei’s Agence France-Presse.
Causing a frenzy that has been dubbed “salmon chaos” by local media, a marketing campaign that promises virtually unlimited sushi to any Akindo Sushiro customer with Chinese “salmon” characters appearing on their card identification has caused dozens of young people to rush to government offices this week to make the name change.
The promotion, which allowed up to six guests by reference to “salmon,” ended Thursday and left a mess of paperwork for local government officials to process.
“This kind of name change not only wastes time, but also causes unnecessary paperwork,” Deputy Interior Minister Chen Tsung-yen said, according to local reports. The country allows its citizens to legally change their name up to three times, which means some might choose to change it again, but they are discouraged from doing so frivolously.
“Please be careful to take care of your good name,” a Home Office statement via Facebook read on Wednesday.
“Five people applied for a name change today and another six yesterday,” local registry office official Ou Minxin said in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the Washington Post reported. “We’ve seen changing names like ‘Hotness Salmon,’ ‘Dip Wasabi and Eat Salmon,’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Eating Free Salmon.'”
In just one day, about 200 patrons with names that included “salmon” visited on Wednesday, said Dory Wang, marketing director of Akindo Sushiro.
A college student named Ma told the TVBS news channel in Kaohsiung that they had changed their name to “bao cheng gui yu,” which means something like “good-looking explosive salmon,” according to The Guardian.
Other recent nicknames included “Salmon Prince”, “Meteor Salmon King” and “Salmon Fried Rice”. A sea devil of excellence added a record 36 new characters to his name, most of which consisted of seafood, including the symbols of aloe, crab and lobster.