PA: I am NOT FROM CHINA.

What?

You cannot be fair and Chinese and not be from China issit?

While some people get the odd encounter of having someone assume they are from a different country, I get the USUAL, HAPPENS EVERYDAY, WASH RINSE REPEAT, *speaks Mandarin* because they assume I am from China encounters.

Not a day passes without someone speaking to me in Mandarin. In the lift, at the roadside, in court( Chinese lawyers practise here meh??) in restaurants, in coffee shops, shopping complexes, cinemas, you name it, it happens.

EVERY-DAMN-WHERE.

In fact, when SARS was the scare of the moment a few years back, I bundled into a taxi after a long day in college. The taxi driver covers his nose and mouth with his hand and says (in Mandarin of course) "Are you from China?" to which I replied "Saya orang Malaysia la."
He then removes his hand and goes (in Mandarin) " oh, I thought if you're from China, I want to wear my mask. Scared you got SARS."

Sure, my eyes are sepet. And my skin may border on being translucent. That does not make me automatically a citizen of PRC. Or that I can spew Mandarin because its my mother tongue.

It has become almost impossible to tell people I do not speak Mandarin. They gape their mouths in awe. They round their eyes in surprise.

When I was younger I get gems like this "Are you mixed?" (Because apparently it's a crime to be born a Malaysian Chinese and be fair and not have gwailo blood infused somewhere)

"Are you Swedish?" (apparently many Swedish people look a tad Chinese)

But the best one I got was "Are you Chindian?"

*_*

Seriously.

I'm this close to bitch slapping and round house kicking (Chuck Norris style) anyone who comes to me and starts their conversation with "siao jie.."