has anyone had a police officer call and ask questions concerning your marriage to a local? the local police (they claimed to be…) called me yesterday and asked me detailed questions about my wife (a taiwanese), her work, my work, her birthday, our address…after several of these questions I backed off saying my mandarin wasn’t up to the “interview”. Actually, at the time I thought it might be somebody fishing for credit info, but now I wonder if my vague responses might bring a visit from the local police or if they might call us in for some type of interview.
Anyone ever heard of an “ins” type interview in taiwan?
they seem to do this now and again these days, as part of “surveys” of couples including the infamous and deadly “foreign spouses.” these couples are widely held to be a sign of the impending doom of society, with such manifestations as drooling, mumbling children and strange dishes on the dinner table. the investigation of this social phenomenon has been devolved in typical taiwanese fashion on the department least likely to give a shit, except to get it out of the way and into the distant past as soon as possible, the police. you were kind in allowing them to chalk one up for the quota!
My wife and I are renting a place where (for tax-dodge reasons) the landlady won’t let us register our household registration - so we are registered at a friends home in Taipei. It seems the police visited our friends house to check up on us when they were out - and ended up talking to their neighbours which resulted in “No, I’ve never seen a waigouren living there” … :help:
They left a phone number with the neighbour for us to ring, and when my wife rang and explained that we weren’t actually living where we were registered (which is, I think, illegal) they said “Oh, that’s a different district … nothing to do with us. Case closed.”. Not what you’d call a thorough investigation
If the police called me up and started asking questions about our marriage, I would just answer by asking him probing questions about his wife or girlfriend.
I don’t know about this; sounds a little fishy. I’ve been through the household registry thing: cops called at the door and the only info they wanted was names and ID numbers for anyone residing in the house. Questions about personal details over the phone? I’d be weary…
I got a call like that once. The guy even spoke passable English at me. I refused to answer his questions and was told it was illegal for me not to answer.
I asked him who he was and he replied with his name and precinct. So I asked him to prove it. He got quite irate, but I just told him he already knows my address, so come in person, in uniform and carrying his police ID. He never showed up.
They do make these calls but generally to local guys that are married to a woman from the PRC of South East Asia to check if it is a genuine marriage or not. It would also be weird that the local police would call a foreigner and not the foreign affairs police.
My wife got a call like this from a government woman who was very embarrassed about having to ask the questions. Nothing was too personal or probing , just “Does your husband want to sign up for Chinese lessons?” and “Do you have trouble communicating?”
It probably depends who you are too. A former workmate of mine was a black man from the Carribean. He used to get calls every couple of months “You’re still here? Still married? Not working are you?”
The police checking up on you - what’s all that about? Supposedly, you can be fined NT $1000 for not having the proper address on your ARC. You can be fined the same amount for not carrying an ARC (or passport?). The cops should hang around some of the larger hotels, to nab people coming and going. They’d make a killing.
[quote=“jdsmith”]My wife got a call like this from a government woman who was very embarrassed about having to ask the questions. Nothing was too personal or probing , just “Does your husband want to sign up for Chinese lessons?” and “Do you have trouble communicating?”
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Apparently the government actually has a program to help foreign spouses (specifically targeting SE Asian wives) learn Chinese and learn how to get acculturated here. They have been criticized for ignoring foreign husbands, as well as foreign spouses from other regions. I read a paper on this recently. I assume the gov’t was making an effort to remedy this by checking up on the formerly ignored groups.
I (foreign spouse of Taiwanese husband) get regular invites and newsletters, offering social gatherings, free Chinese lessons, guidance counselling, health checks and even a seminar on “Presenting oneself for a job in Taiwan”. And because mom is not local, we also get housecalls to check on the growth and development of the kids.
True dat.
A coule of years ago I gave in to the repeated offers of a “Foreign Spouse Chinese Class” and decided to try it out.
It was 18 - 20 Viet Namese spouses and me…
My Viet is passable and, surprisingly, most of them spoke basic to very good english. The Chinese teacher, dear soul that she was, spoke nil, nada, none, no english.
I bo po mo fo;d around 2 nights a week for a couple of months and finally, after spending my class time putting english titles on pictures for the teacher to use in her day job as an elementary teacher, I called it quits.
Made a few buddies with the Viet ladies and still see a few around and stop and chat a bit.
IMO, the main downfall, for me, was the lack of the teacher to speak any english. If that was not the case I think it would have been a good deal.
Also, what I was really looking for was a Chinese conversation class…bo po mo fo is/was just not what I wanted.
