Am I From China? No, I’m not.

I met someone today who asked me after finding out only my first name (which is Anglo-sounding, by the way), “Are you from China?”

I’m sure the guy meant well, but come on! I never meet a white dude with a perfect American accent and ask, “Are you from Sweden?” or meet a Black woman with a perfect American accent and ask, “Are you from Nigeria?”

The guy who asked me is an immigrant, actually. His own accent and look gives away that he himself is probably from a country in Latin America. I suppose he has his reasons for asking. I don’t know. I find it weird. Is that his way of trying to make himself seem more American by making me seem less American (i.e., more foreign)? Who knows? I rarely have American-born Americans ask me if I’m “from China” or “from [fill-in-the-blank Asian country].” It’s usually someone who is clearly born outside the US who is either trying to make me more “other” and herself less “other” or perhaps make me “other” in order to commiserate (a kind of See? We’re both not Americans. We have a common bond.)

I always try to respond politely, because I’m generally a polite guy. Of course, if I weren’t, I’d scream, “What the fuck is wrong with you? Can’t you see I’m American? Can’t you hear that I speak English perfectly? Why do you think I’m from China?!” Instead, I either answer her straightforwardly that I’m from New England originally (which inevitably leads to the “Where are you really from?” obnoxious follow-up question) or I try to answer her question in a compromise of telling her what she wants to know and also hinting that she’s asking the question badly, “I was born in America, actually, but my parents are from Hong Kong. Is that what you wanted to know?”

Ah, to be of Asian descent in America… even in the Bay Area sometimes… geez.