A person’s name represents that person. In some cultures, people can under certain circumstances only address people by their full name, showing that a name is significant.
Hundreds of Taiwanese earlier this month changed their names to Guiyu (“Salmon,” 鮭魚) to get a free meal from a sushi restaurant chain.
The news was even reported by CNN and other international media, and it will surely be ingrained in people’s memories for years to come.
In semiotics, the process by which a word and a meaning are associated is called “semiosis.”
Many people spend a lifetime trying to associate a more unique meaning with their names. When people changed their names, which carry a special meaning, just to get some free sushi, there was a huge gap between the cost of their action and what they gained.
It subverted the perception of names as significant symbols, giving up culture and ideology for a meal.
Many people found it unacceptable.
In addition to our legal names, many of us also have other names, as the Internet age offers many opportunities to give ourselves new identities.
Every application and social medium requires the creation of a user name. The more effort we put into the digital domain, the greater meaning our names will develop.
During semiosis, real-world culture and ideology follow different rules in the digital domain. If a name in this domain derives a rich meaning, it can replace the person’s legal name and become their new identity.
For example, very few YouTubers use their real name.
Still, are our names nothing but replaceable symbols?
Although our digital identities can replace our real names online, this does not mean that we can arbitrarily change our names in the digital domain.
A name change might require verification, or there might be restrictions on how many times a name can be changed, or it might not be allowed at all.
It is evident that even online, a personal identity is not easily established or abandoned.
As names are related to culture, ideology and the establishment of identity, the “salmon chaos” has been described by the media as the digital generation’s resistance to tradition and as an attempt by young people to deconstruct existing ideology.
To be honest, this whole issue is just a matter of the media once again making a big thing of a generational confrontation, which they have over the past few years used repeatedly to attract clicks on the Internet, and the careless public has once again followed along.
Many middle-aged people, my own generation, have been in the digital domain since high school or college, and we are equally familiar with the rules for establishing a digital identity, proving that the case is not about generational confrontation.
The people who changed their names to get free sushi probably did not do so out of a lofty ideal to disrupt ideology as the media claim they did — they probably just wanted to do something frivolous and will change their names back.
Whether they did it with class is another story.
As for the question of whether a rose by the name Salmon would still smell as sweet, the answer depends on how serious you think the matter is.
Chang Yueh-han is an assistant professor at Shih Hsin University’s Department of Journalism.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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