"Where do you come from?" I was asked countless time when traveling outside East Asia. From my hair and skin colour, fellow travelers and the locals alike usually judge that I am either a Korean or Japanese. If they do not inquire specifically my nationality, I usually just give a simple answer: I come from Hong Kong.

What comes next is a fatalistic question that all Honkies encounter unavoidably: Are you a Chinese, after the transition of the sovereignty?

Okay, let's have a look of my passport(s). Before 1997, I held a British Dependent Territories citizenship, but it didn't confer me citizenship in the UK, and I never considered myself a Brit. After 1997, I have a British National Overseas "passport" and a Hong Kong SAR passport. The former one isn't really a passport. Like the BDTC passport, it doesn't give me British citizenship, and it neither provides me with any consular protection when I get into trouble overseas. It's merely a travel document and useful for visa-free travel in the UK and most countries in South America. My SAR passport says that my nationality is Chinese. But different from a "real" Chinese passport issued by the People's Republic of China, we SAR passport holders do enjoy certain privileges that the mainlanders do not have. For instances, we are granted visa-free status to almost all European countries and the Commonwealths except the US. However, if we are in deep shit, sorry, Hongkongers are in the worst situation, even worse than the Chinese passport holders. Chinese embassies or consulates cannot issue new passports if you lose yours. They will only act as a middleman to contact the immigration department in Hong Kong to issue a new one for you, which you can actually contact them by yourself and you get responses from them even quicker than via the embassies. I met quite a number of Hong Kong travelers whose encounters with the Chinese embassies were never a pleasant one, including mine.

Here is the problem. If Hong Kong is part of China, if we Heung Gong Yan (Hong Kong People) are considered as Chinese, why are we treated differently (both good and bad)? And why are there different categories of Chinese (We have mainland Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, Taiwanese Chinese, overseas Chinese and more...)? What constitutes a Chinese?

I like playing the following game with travelers and laowai. Put the portraits of people with difference races and ethnicities on a table. Pick one photo that represents a Chinese. What will you pick? A Tibetan? A Uighur? A Russian? Or a Mongolian? These ethnicities, together with other 52 ethnic groups, are recognized officially by the People's Republic of China as Chinese nationals. But in reality, this supra-ethnic concept never convinces us. All of the people I tested in this game chose a picture of a Han, without exceptions. When we are talking about the Chinese people, we usually refer them to the creature with dark eyes, black hair and yellow skin who speaks "Chinese".

Speaking of languages, it complicates the identity issue. What is a Chinese language? As the aphorism says, a language is a dialect with an army and navy. After the Republic of China was established in 1912, Mandarin, a northern dialect, was chosen as the official language due to political considerations; and the People's Republic of China later renamed it as Putonghua in 1955. Sichuanese, Cantonese, Shanghainese, and Hunanese, therefore, are considered dialects rather than languages, even they are mutually unintelligible and show marked linguistic diversity. Significant cultural differences within the Han population are regarded as minor, and the national propaganda is all Han, no matter which language/dialect they speak, are united by a common history and written language.

My mother tongue is Cantonese and my ancestors were originally from Guangdong. When I was traveling in Yunnan I had an interesting conversation with a mainland backpacker.

"ni shi na li ren?" he asked.

I naturally replied that I am a Cantonese. Then a question followed: "Which part of Guangdong?"

"Hong Kong."

"You are a Hongkonger, not a Cantonese."

"But most Honkies are Cantonese. We speak Cantonese and share the same culture in Guangdong. Also, geographically (if not politically), Hong Kong is within the territory of Guangdong"

"Yes, but still, you Hongkongers are just different."

"Then do you think that I am a Chinese?"

"Yes, of course. Hong Kong is now part of China."

"So, a Hongkonger is a Chinese, but not a Cantonese?"

"......"

In fact this traveler is partially right. The Hong Kong identity is ambiguous. We have a sizable population of Hakka, Chiu Chow, Fukien, Indians and Pakistanis born and bred in Hong Kong and speak perfect Cantonese without an accent. They are permanent residents here, but sadly, nobody considered them Heung Gong Yan. No matter how many years they have been living here, still, they are treated as migrants. That is especially the case for South Asians.

I don't really care whether I am a Chinese or a Hongkonger. We are all global citizens. But in reality, the barbed wire fences along the borders, the immigration procedure and the types of passports you have remind you that nationality and race do matter.

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