My Disastrous Taiwan Marriage
June 21, 2011
"I feel so stupid and so used. I've learned a valuable lesson and will be very selective in the future. For a few months I drowned my sorrows in alcohol, but now I've stopped drinking and am on the way to rebuilding my shattered life."
by Jon Gardiner
(henrymakow.com)
Well it turned out that she was not so traditional after all. I'll tell you what happened. After we got married I found out she had been married before and had two daughters. They were in her ex-husband's custody. A year after we got married, the ex-husband sent them back to her, and she said 'My girls are coming back now; you can leave if you want.'
So I felt pretty bad. She had deceived me. I was clearly not her first priority. And how could she make a vow before God in MY church (we got married in Saskatchewan) only to say a year later I could leave? But I decided to forgive her and stick it out.
Up to that point, we had a pretty good life. I was working very hard for a number of years and had saved $10,000. She was not working. I had paid for our trip to Canada and was paying for our life in Taiwan while we had a plan to save more money and move back to Saskatchewan and buy a house.
But when the girls came back, that plan went down the drain. Our living expenses increased six times. We had to get a bigger place to live, our food bill increased four times, we had to pay for the girls school because there is no free gov't. education here. And we were constantly fighting over money, and she complaining that I 'wasn't taking responsibility for her girls.' But their father wasn't paying anything, I was paying.
Without my knowledge, she was withdrawing money from my bank account until there was nothing left. I lost my job last year and decided to take some time off. I went to the bank and found out there was nothing left. I confronted her and she got mad at me and told me to get another job or get out! It was a pretty vicious fight. I packed my clothes and books, got on my motorcycle and rode south to Kaohsiung. Since then I've been living on my own and working, trying to rebuild my savings.
Now I know plenty of other men here who married Taiwanese women and are much happier--but they married young single women who didn't already have some other man's children. That's the point here: doesn't matter what race the woman is, when a man gets involved with a divorced woman who's had another man's children, only trouble will come of it.
I feel so stupid and so used. I've learned a valuable lesson and will be very selective in the future. For a few months I drowned my sorrows in alcohol, but now I've stopped drinking and am on the way to rebuilding my shattered life. Next year I'll be forty, so I'm still in my prime. There is still time for me to achieve financial security and find true love. The world is a big place and no government controls me. I have been knocked down, but I have picked myself up and am carrying on. My head is bloodied but remains unbowed.
Thanks for listening and let this be a lesson to all men in Asia and everywhere else: stay away from women who will make you pay for their previous mistakes
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Paul said (June 22, 2011):
This story is a very good reminder that not all is well in the rosy world of Asian brides. I rarely hear such things. I have heard of a man who was dead after a couple of years to a Filipina (she had gotten her family over here by the time of the death) and I have spoken once or twice with a dissatisified husband but for the most part I hear nothing but praise and wonder at the goodness of these women. And when these women make advances toward me, they speak highly of their ability to make their husbands satisfied. Thanks for the article, Henry.