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Q: How late are phone calls acceptable?
There seems to be a tendency that everyone calls my wife in the later part of the evening. It's OK, but it's just often sort of BS calls about nothing. If a relative gets hospitalized or worse, sure call anytime of day, if you want to bitch about your daughter not seeming to want to provide you with grandkids, maybe it can wait.
It's not that I want to sleep at sunset, it's just that in our home, this is the time where husband and wife gets to have some time alone.
Is this a Chinese thing. In my circles back home 10PM was when radio silence set in (sure a text could sneak in leading to a call if it was something of importance like meeting for a late beer or such)
10 years 28 weeks ago in Family & Kids - China
Yes - 10.00 pm is the cut off point for calls. Exceptions being family and emergencies. Even then, people tend not to call after 21.30, or if they do, they apologise. I've been called by students after midnight, and i'm not talking about drunk dialing but questions about class work. 
I hang w/ the younger generation so I usually do not get 'calls', but I get 'sms's' at any random time. 05:00 to 02:00. I just figure that's how it is. If phone actually rings, I typically ignore because then I know it is some older dude/dudette wanting to talk biz, which I am not into except at very certain times... haha,, they gotta learn to sms...
Agreed, the only exception is Saturday night when friends call to find out in which bar's bathroom you've passed out in.
Oh I'll also make an exception for family members abroad who can call any time of the day or night.
Scandinavian:
but don't you usually get some kind of digital notification before anyone calls across time-zones.
From both Europe and US it is possible to make calls at decent times of day. Might conflict with working hours, but hey...
9.30pm is absolute limit! Also trying to figure out why the question actually got a thumbs down???!!
IMO
On work days after 8am until 9pm is acceptable calling time. Of course exceptions for family and scheduled calls / nights out as people say. On the weekend, or days off, after 9am and before 10pm is fine.
As I have told the missus, my mobile phone is for MY convenience, not the convenience of others. I therefore very rarely answer any calls that I either am not expecting or if I am just not that interested in talking to the person calling.
People seem to think that it is an obligation to answer a call or text. They forget it is not.
By the way, the missus does not agree and gets all pissy if I just ignore my phone.
Scandinavian:
the obligation to answer. If I'm sitting with company at home having dinner, and my phone goes off, everyone starts to look around like the heavens will come down if the phone is not answered. My phone is never on the dinner table and I doubt anyone can call me and tell me anything that has more importance than the people I am with at that moment.
people are slaves of their phones.
mikael84:
This also pisses me off.
Just yesterday: Me and the misses are having a serious conversation about something very important, then some random person calls and she picks up. I got annoyed and told her she should ignore it and call back.
She just doesn't think that way and insists on answering every call she gets.
