A restaurant in China's Guangdong has gone viral for something quirky in its menu. If you guessed it to be unusual names given to dishes, you aren't right. Rather the eatery tweaked its price tags and added an academic qualification reference to them.
Primary School, PhD, academician...
Instead of simply writing the amount of every dish, they used a reference of educational levels. For example, a food item priced at 13 yuan was termed "Primary school" and a snack worth 32 yuan read "Academician".
When foodies picked the menu to browse through dishes being offered at the eatery, reported to specialise in Cantonese cuisine, they came across unconventional price tags. This menu card listed 12 pricing categories across dishes, ranging up to 32 yuan.
The list ranged from kindergarten to an academician. A dish available for 29 yuan referred to a "PhD degree". It was learned that the cheapest dish in the restaurant was labelled as “Bai ding”, meaning illiterate in Chinese. It was priced for only five yuan.
The entire menu was available only in the local language, however, translations made it reach wider audience.
Netizens react
While this menu carrying unconventional price tags associated with academic degrees might have amused people, it didn't fetch much of an appreciation on the internet. It might have been unique but not praiseworthy.
As it went viral on the internet, it triggered a hot discussion and backlash.
Local news media SCMP shared some of the reactions from Baidu, a Chinese web services with social media platforms.
"It’s a blatant form of educational discrimination. It will offend many individuals with lower educational achievements,” read a comment.
"It’s simply an unusual business idea. We should encourage creativity and not be overly sensitive,” another user reportedly wrote on the internet platform.
