How far would you go for free sushi? For a few sushi enthusiasts in Taiwan, dealing with the consequences of a sushi promotion has proven to be worse than the consequences of eating sushi from the petrol station.
Last year, restaurant chain Sushiro offered free all-you-can-eat sushi to anyone with the Chinese characters for salmon, 鮭魚 (guīyú), in their name, plus five of their friends. At least 332 people changed their names to cash in on the offer – adopting monikers such as “Salmon Dream”, “Handsome Salmon” and “Dancing Salmon”, then changing their names back once the two-day promotion was up.
But there was an unexpected catch: under Taiwanese law, a person can only legally change their name three times in their life, meaning anyone who used their third change to add “salmon” was stuck with it forever.
Recently, Taiwanese lawmakers have debated changing this limit to give the participants in the so-called “salmon chaos” a break, or making it harder to change your name in the first place to stop this tomfoolery from happening again.
“The public should cherish administrative resources and remain rational. It is recommended that no application for a name change is allowed within one year after the name change,” proposed amendments read.
Frankly, we think this should be a lesson: whether you’re changing your name to Salmon for free sushi or getting a Domino’s tattoo for free pizza, be careful about doing anything permanent – because in some cases you really are what you eat.
