香港人

Every now and then I meet new people at school, at work, at whatever.  If the new person I happen to be meeting is Chinese, at some point, they'll ask me, "Are you from China?"

This is supposed to be a simple yes or no question, but it's not.

So my usual answer is, "I'm from HK."  I don't say yes or no, because neither is completely appropriate.

Some people will accept that and move on.  Some people will start saying how HK is part of China so that means I'm from China and so on and so forth.

There was a time in high school when the school was collecting some statistical data.  On one of the papers, it asked what country you were born in.  My friend sitting next to me said, "What do we answer here?  HK?  But HK is part of China.  I'm not putting that I'm from China! Whatever! I'm putting HK!"

Well...that says it all.

Sorry if this may sound a little racist or whatever.  And I do know some people from China that are very good and respectable people that are my friends.

But, yes, there's a difference.

I'm pretty sure most, if not all, HKer's would never say that they're from China.