[MNBlockHead]

Funny, I was actually added to my wife's household record. More funny is that in Taiwan, there are families that have no sons who will pay a young man marrying one of their daughters to join their household to keep the family going. My wife had no brothers so there were a lot of jokes about that, though it was really just a matter of convenience, as I was not a citizen and not eligible to establish a household there, but was a legal resident through marriage.

The Hukou system goes back to the Xia Dynasty, so has been around for three and a half millennia or so. When Taiwan was part of the Japanese empire the Japanese koseki system. My understanding is the that modern system is closer to the Japanese system than the Chinese, but I don't know enough about the similarities and differences between the two household registration systems.