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Would You Change Your Name for Free Food?

改名可换取免费食物，你愿意吗？

A strange question, yes, but one that some residents of Taiwan found themselves asking recently – and for a (slightly worryingly) large number, the answer was a resounding yes.

确实是一个奇怪的问题，但是部分台湾居民的回答是：愿意。

It all started when Japanese restaurant chain Sushiro kicked off a promotional campaign promising free food to anyone named ‘gui yu’, which translates to ‘salmon’. They also offered 50% discounts to anyone with a similar-sounding name, and 10% to diners with one homophonic character in their name.

一切要从一家叫寿司郎的日式餐厅说起，他们为名叫“鲑鱼”的客人免单，同音可享5折优惠，单字同音可享9折优惠。

A branch of Sushiro

On day one of the two-day promotion, Sushiro roped in an impressive 1,000 participants in the offer – around 30 of whom were eligible for free food for themselves and their whole table.

在活动第一天，寿司郎接待了近1000名客人，其中约有30人可享受免单。

But Sushiro wasn’t the only business that saw an influx of demand on the launching of their offer. Household registration offices were flooded with applications from Taiwanese locals requesting to change their name to – you guessed it – salmon.

其他餐厅为了流量也纷纷效仿推出相似活动。于是各地的户籍登记处收到了大量当地人的改名申请，他们想把自己的名字改成——没错——鲑鱼。

More than 20 people filled in the application form for their fishy new moniker in Taipei alone, with plenty more also taking the bait elsewhere in Taiwan. In Taichung, a student changed her name from ‘Kuo’ to ‘Kuo Salmon Rice Bowl’ so she could treat her friends, while two other fish fanatics got through over 3,000 RMB’s worth of sushi.

仅在台北就有20多人提交改名申请表，其他地方也有人效仿。在台中，一个学生把名字从“ kuo”改成了“ kuo 鲑鱼饭” ，这样她就可以免费请客，而另外两人则吃掉了价值3000元的寿司。

Another over-enthusiastic applicant set a new record for the longest name, changing his name to the 36-character title ‘Chen loves Taiwan, abalone, tuna, salmon, snow crab, sea urchin, scallop, lobster and beef, Mayfull, Palais de Chine, Regent, Hilton, Caesar Park, Hotel Royal’. Quite the mouthful.

其中一位改名申请者甚至创造了最长姓名的记录，他改名为：陈热爱台湾鲍鱼金枪鱼三文鱼雪蟹海胆扇贝龙虾牛肉美福中国宫殿摄政王希尔顿凯撒公园皇家酒店。蛮拗口的。

Such was the increase in demand for name changes, that the Ministry of the Interior had to remind citizens that they’re legally allowed to change their name three times – an important reminder for one particular participant, who discovered that his mum had already changed his name twice as a baby.

更改姓名的人越来越来，以至于相关部门不得不提醒市民，根据法律可以改三次姓名——这对于某些参与者来说是个重要的提醒，因为有的人发现自己的母亲在其婴儿时期已经改过两次姓名了。

P.S. please don’t get any ideas – we’d be honoured if any of you changed your name to Sherpa’s, but we’re not promising any free food!

另外，请不要有任何想法！如果有人想改名为食派士，我们会感到非常荣幸，但我们不能保证提供免费食物哦！