Out of Place

I look Chinese. I swear.

Coming to Hong Kong, I thought I'd just blend into the streets along with the millions of other Chinese people that resides on this tiny island. Since coming here, I would say half the time, people tries Catonese with first and the other half English. I dismissed it as the level of English that is present here in Hong Kong. After all, the classes are taught in English in Hong Kong schools.

Today I went to SOGO, an Hong Kong department store that I would compare to Macy's. I wanted to look for a memory foam mattress (which seems to be hard to find in Asia). When I waited for the elevator to leave, there was a white male staring at me. Not like he was looking randomly, but actually staring for several minutes. In the elevator, he decided to strike up a conversation with me, in English. He was a French expat working in Hong Kong. When I asked him what made him decide to strike up a conversation with me rather than the 10 other people waiting for the elevator, he told me something about me stood out. I seemed I would be Westernized. That's when I realized, the people here aren't speaking English to me because that's the norm, they're speaking English to me because something about me must be screaming American. Let me know if you have a theory on why I look American.

One theory I have is that I look like a tourist since Hong Kong is a major tourist destination spot. Since I look lost and confused most of the time when I'm on the streets, I am sure I look like a tourist. However, given how I look, the logical conclusion is that I would be a tourist from Mainland China - ethnically, that is who I am. But the people here don't ever speak Mandarin towards me, the way they would speak to a Mainland tourist. Any other theories?