How Many Chinese Would be Enough?

This is a Taiwanese passport.

Both Taiwan and Republic of China could be seen on the cover of it. Actually, the word China caused me some troubles when I travel abroad. Well, they might not be considered as real troubles. Only some customs officers asked for the visa of other European countries, but then they soon realised that I am from Taiwan, which is visa free for Schengen Agreement countries, not from China.

Another thing is that, I might be wrong, but it seems that those who are not form East Asia think those who are from East Asia are Chinese although they might come from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or wherever! Well, I mean, yes it is a truth that the total population of east asian countries excluding China does not exceed 1.3 billion, so the hit rate of guessing 'this person is from China' is very high. HOWEVER, non-Chinese people do exist. So here I would like to require, if someone is going to start a small talk with, or curious about the nation of an asian face person, please, 'Where do you come from?' is much better than 'Are you from China?'

I have to admit that I have the preconception of Mainland China since the government kept trying to invade Taiwan in economic and politic ways. Despite the preconception, I have some Chinese friends as well. They are nice and kind, and they helped me a lot in my master year. Nonetheless, something upset still happened. When I finished the trip to St.Petersburg and waited in the line to leave the ferry, a Chinese guy in a traveling group started a quarrel with another person. The noise then became louder and louder and hence they drew attention from people waiting there. I firstly observed them with interest until I accidentally heard the whisper from a couple standing near by me.

The husband criticised Chinese people's behavior, and his wife stopped him since 'the person stands there might be Chinese.'

'Eacuse me, NOOOOO!!!!! I am not!!!' I screamed in my mind.

Fortunately, she decided to straight ask me 'are you in the big group there?'

'Oh, no,' thanks god, 'I am not (definitely).' And then we started to talk a little bit about what am I doing in the UK and where do I come from. To me, it is really nice to have an opportunity to explain the nationality. However, people often just guess this asian is from China, and sometimes, connect us with terrible behaviors.