Issei Kato/Reuters
- Dozens of Taiwanese have flocked to government offices to include the word "salmon" in their legal names.
- They hope to get free sushi at Sushiro, a chain that is offering free food to anyone named "salmon."
- The restaurant chain said that at least 1,000 people have participated in the promotion.
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Dozens of Taiwanese people have flocked to government offices to include the word "salmon" in their legal names to score some free sushi.
According to the Taipei Times, household registration offices have been flooded with people who were looking to change their legal names temporarily to include the words "salmon" (or gui yu, 鮭魚) in their identity cards.
They were hoping to get free sushi at a conveyor sushi restaurant chain, Akindo Sushiro after the chain promised to give free meals to anyone whose name included the unusual word.
The chain said that for a limited time, those who could present an identity card bearing the name "salmon" could receive a complimentary meal for their whole table.
Meanwhile, those whose names were homophones of the Chinese word for "salmon" could enjoy their meals at half price. No such luck for those with one homophonic character: as they were only given a 10% discount.
The Times interviewed a college student in Taichung, who said she had changed her name to "Kuo Salmon Rice Bowl" to give her friends a treat, but planned to change it back the next day.
Two other people that the Times spoke to said that they had eaten NT$13,000 ($459) worth of sushi at the restaurant in one sitting.
"I do not think we will want to eat salmon again for a while," they said.
Akindo Sushiro told the Taipei Times that 28 people had claimed free meals as of 3 pm on Wednesday, and a total of 1,000 people had participated in the quirky promo event.
Citizens applying for a legal name change must pay NT$80 ($3) for a new identification card and household registration certificate, according to the Taipei Department of Civil Affairs.
However, the authorities cautioned as well that names can only be legally changed up to three times in Taiwan.
In light of this policy, some may live to regret opting for this name change, as the Times said a man known as Hsu had learned this little factoid the hard way after his mother told him that she had changed his name twice when he was a child.
This means that Hsu may be stuck with the name "salmon" for the rest of his life.
"Each person has three chances to change their name," the ministry wrote on Facebook. "Everyone, please consider your name carefully."