Chinese or not?

Would you deny you're chinese?

You may deny that you're from mainland china (which is true) ...

...but will you deny that you're chinese?

It never occured to me that when I'm somewhere that is not Malaysia / Singapore, people would just assume that I'm from the mainland. It is only natural, afterall.

look chinese...... check.

speaks chinese....... check.

no Canadian accent.... definitely not Canadian born, therefore... check.

It isn't that bad,really, now that my mandarin is getting more fluent and my sentences flow more normally. I hang out with the mainland people almost all the time now and it can get pretty funny.

Just when I thought life is getting better, me actually having a few people to hang out with, to talk with,to joke with,to poke fun with, to study with, to share with.... and then it got all bitter and nasty.

Hong Kong people don't really like the mainland people. Well, at least this two Hong Kongs in my business class.

I can emphatise and I can't at the same time.

One of them refuses to speak mandarin, even when he can, because he doesn't acknowledge that he is Chinese. He's go "WHAT?" to people who speak to him in chinese.BUT, he speaks cantonese. And we all know that cantonese is a dialect in China. Big difference,eh? *rolls eyes*

The other,is just plain snotty. I tried to make conversation with her, and time after time she just mumbled an answer and looked away.Way snotty,hey?

I know it's because they think I'm mainland (cuz the guy-who-wont-speak-mandarin told me today that someone told him I'm Malaysian and that before that he thought i was "one of them" -- in his own words).

But you can't really be that childish, can you? Using a drop of ink to cover an entire area -- (chinese idiom I learnt from the chinese people).

I know you don't like the mainland people and it's only natural. Sure, I don't like being thought of as a mainland chinese either. The thing is I look chinese AND am chinese and so do you.

What a snot. She should go look at a mirror. Hong Kong is not the only place where there are chinese who don't want to be thought of as mainland.

Honestly, I never thought that being Malaysian born was such a big complicated issue,until I came here.