Bird's Nest Flattery

I spotted this shop in Chinatown selling Bird's Nest, a very popular Chinese delicacy which is at once expensive and supposedly good for health. Well, this wasn't what made me take a snap shot of this shop. Rather, its the name of the shop, which sounded very similar to a very popular Korean soap opera named Dae Jang Geum or Jewel in the Palace. This soap (or serial as its more commonly called nowadays) is very popular not only in its native Korea, but also in Hong Kong as well as Singapore. I am sure that it is just as popular wherever there are Koreans, Chinese or perhaps even Japanese. I was glued to this serial when it was broadcast in Singapore. The thing is - I am not normally a 'serial' fan.

Well, apparently this shop decided to make capital out of this wildly successful serial by naming the shop after the show, even right down to the fonts for the Chinese title of the show, shown here on the shop's signboard. The only difference is the last Chinese character. Here, the character means 'Gold'. In the serial, that last character stands for "today". But phonetically, the two words are the same. So the resemblance is unmistakable. Long after the serial is forgotten, this shop (if it is still around then, that is), can become a conversation piece about 2003's most popular Korean serial.

For more on "Dae Jang Geum", see:

Jewel in the Palace
Dae Jang Geum Theme Park
Han Cinema - Dae Jang Geum