Do you get insulted when people automatically think that you are Chinese?

I guess that's what's great about being white. No one can ever mistake you for something else (most of the time). I have other things about me that get called out, such as my height and whatnot. I do however have a friend who is Mexican/Irish and people are always asking him what exactly he is. It's kind of amusing most of the time.

Yay! You figured out how to create discussions!! People have never automatically thought I was Chinese, or any other background for that matter. I don't have specific characteristics that people from a certain country have. If someone did assume I was Chinese I'd probably be a little confused because I don't look Chinese or any type of Asian.

of course. here in california, everyone keeps coming up to me speaking spanish thinking i'm mexican. my husband gets that too. and then he tells them he's not mexican, then they look at him weird. he's actually Japanese! but more precisely, Okinawan. for me, I'm an Asian-Polynesian mix. But I'm mostly Filipino and the only people who can identify me being filipino and not mexican are OTHER filipino's! it's actually pretty funny at times. But there are so many asian types out there, even i just say...asian because with all the mixes now, you can't really tell.

I usually was asked if I ever had foreign blood, like Arab or Indian, because of my physical appearance and height, and I just got used to it. At first, I felt weird but now I just laugh and deny. I sometimes explain where I got my appearance but I never felt insulted, actually flattered was more like it. I don't look anywhere near Chinese, although I am Asian, so never have been assumed to be one but I think if I was and it happened regularly, then I'd get used to it.

anvaughan, Well, I suppose this is what you've got to get used to once you are an Asian. For me, I am basically a Chinese but a foreign Chinese, which means that I am not a Mainland China Chinese. Amidst the confusion, I basically get into awkward situations which most of the time is quite humorous. However, there are times I will be mistaken for a Japanese when I visit Europe, US, New Zealand or Australia where majority of the people there believe in assumption that the Japanese to be more affluent and the traveling sort. Most of the time, if I do not see the need to clarify I will just let it slip and shrug it off my shoulder, taking how much they really know about Asia. So like you, I do get my fair share of wrongful classifications and misunderstandings, its just imperfectly human.

In order to answer this question, I wanna share my experience at first. About ten years ago, I visited a foreign country with my friend, which was my first time to travel abroad. When I talked with local people, they often asked me "Do you come from Japan?" or "Are you Japanese?". When I told such experiences to my friends after returning home, they said that they also encountered such situations. I could totally understand why such situation occurs. Japanese are very rich and like to travel abroad, so people in other countries except East Asia are more likely to treat people of yellow race as Japanese. Recently more and more Chinese could afford the expenses of traveling abroad. They spend a lot of money buying different kinds of goods during the time of travel, which gives local people a deep impression.

This is a matter of tolerance. Everywhere there are people who are not tolerant and take the appearance of the person to justify such intolerance. I've read something about this issue and says intolerance is less with people who have money, no matter where they come from.