What’s in a name? For Ma Jeng Shiuan, a Taiwanese university student, the answer was an opportunity for some dubious business.
The 22-year-old said he had officially changed his name to “Ma Jeng Shiuan Bao Zheng Gui Yu” for a few days this week, adding the words “dancing salmon” in an attempt to win free sushi after a promotional offer at a national chain event of restaurants.
The temporary “Taiwan Sushiro” deal offered sushi for free to anyone with “gui yu” – the Chinese characters for salmon – in their name.
The promotion sparked an unexpected craze that was dubbed “salmon chaos” on social media and local media.
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“I got to know this event because it went viral on social media and a lot of people in Taiwan know about it,” Ma told NBC News via Instagram on Friday.
He said that his parents were a little concerned about his name change, but that he was more relaxed, as he knew he could change it again later.
“I went to Sushiro almost 15 times,” he added.
In Taiwan, individuals are legally allowed to change their names a maximum of three times. The restaurant accepted national identity cards as official proof of new customers’ names.
The government apparently did not like it, asking people to stop wasting employees’ time.
“This kind of name change not only wastes time, but causes unnecessary paperwork,” Deputy Interior Minister Chen Tsung-yen told the media on Thursday. “I hope that everyone can respect administrative resources and be more rational about it.”
More than 200 people paid the small fee – about $ 3 – to change their names at the Taiwanese family registry to take advantage of the promotion, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
The promotion allowed the individual called salmon to bring in five other people who could also eat for free.
Ma, who comes from the southern port city of Kaohsiung and has a degree in business administration, saw an opportunity and started charging a small fee to strangers to eat with him under his new salmon nickname.
“I brought a lot of people over to eat and charge 30% of the original price,” he said. “Furthermore, I treat my best friends as well to return the favor, since they have been very nice to me.”
Ma said he won about $ 2,000, but changed his name on Friday when the promotion ended.
The chaos of the salmon was not well received by all, however, some were bothered by the deeper implications of a brief mania that had largely captured the imagination of the young.
“It’s fun to watch the marketing trick work, but I’m not going to change my name over a meal,” said Jimmy Su, 49, operations manager at a technology company in Taipei.
Although most people think this is “hilarious”, Su added, he said that others thought “changing names arbitrarily is an act of disrespect to parents”.
A restaurant chain representative told NBC News that more than 1,800 people enjoyed the two-day promotion.
“The current situation is far beyond our expectations,” said the representative, “but we are very happy that consumers have shown their love for us.”
The network said it would “learn from experience” and “accept comments with an open mind”.
