Chinese man tries to avoid fine by passing himself off as foreign-born
Tue, May 18, 2010
The China Post/Asia News Network
TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- A motorbike rider tried in vain to avoid being fined for randomly dropping garbage on the ground by speaking English to an environmental inspector in Taipei County in an attempt to pass himself as an 'American-born Chinese,' a local newspaper reported yesterday.
The inspector, 44-year-old man named Chang Chao-ran, told the Chinese-language Liberty Times that when on duty one day last year, he found a young motorist recklessly dropping trash on a street in Taipei County, and proceeded to try to stop and fine the rider. However, on approaching the motorist, the rider told him in English that he was not a local.
The rider was apparently hoping that by using a foreign tongue he could scare Chang off or create an impression of being ignorant of Taiwan's regulations.
Little did he know that Chang speaks fluent English. When Chang asked the motorist to show his passport in English, the rider could hardly utter another word in English before finally pleading in Mandarin.
When Chang asked the rider why he tried to speak in English, the motorist replied that he was inspired by a TV program in which a foreigner recalled avoided receiving a traffic ticket by speaking English to law enforcement officers.
Chang, a graduate from the National Chung Hsing University, used to work at the China Steel Corp. and then served as a lending clerk at a domestic bank before joining the Taipei County environmental cleaning team as an inspector 14 years ago
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