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May 13, 2006
Where is your hometown ?
Shenme Difang Ren and Ni de laojia zai nali ? are 2 very popular questions in China, basically it means where do you come from, although actual translation could be "which place person?" or "your home town is where?"
For me, this is an awkward question, as I honestly don't know where I would call my hometown, and chatting to a few western friends got me thinking about doing this post, to see if I can work where my hometown actually is:
Born = Small village in NW England called Nelson
6 months > 10 years old = Various towns around Copenhagen, Denmark
10 years > 11 years old = Back to Nelson, England
11 years > 18 years old = London
18 years > 21 years old = Various towns around North East England
21 years > 25 years old = London
25 years > 26 years old = Northern Cyprus
26 years > 31 years old = London
31 years > now = Shanghai and London
add the fact that my parents come from a remote village in Northern Pakistan and you kinda get my meaning I hope.
So my answer usually is London, however many people are not happy with this, and continue to delve deeper, much as I would love to say the Village in Pakistan, I don't actually think that is correct.
What you think ?
Posted by shak at May 13, 2006 11:05 PM
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I think it's a stupid, outdated question and you tell the person who asks it, who the F**K cares?
Posted by: bob at May 15, 2006 11:08 PM
Ah! Another one. My whole family (me, siblings, cousins, both parents, all grandparents - and probably beyond that, too) seems to be composed of people born in country A, have citizenship of country B, and now live on a (semi)-permanent basis in country C, where A, B & C are different for each person, though with some overlaps. Hence the question I get asked a lot and dread the most is "where are you from?" In my case the answer would involve Denmark, Brazil, Nigeria, Belgium, USA, UK, and arguably Canada. Throw in my parents and you can add Germany, Kenya, Egypt, France, and Poland to the list.
I have four stock answers which I deploy according to situation:
1. Fix the place to be where I live "now", i.e. deliberately misinterpret the question to mean "where do you live now". This often works well. In your case, this suggests "London" or "The UK" when asked in China, or "Shanghai" when asked in the UK.
2. If the questioner persists, then I might ignore the question altogether or say something vague like "I grew up all over the place". In either case I then lead the conversation onto something else. (I have gotten good at that)
or
3. Provide a jokey answer that is manifestly not true ("Nowhere, Nebraska", or "Remotistan") and then change the subject.
If 2. or 3. are used, that is a pretty strong signal to the questioner to lay off. Some respect that, and for those that don't, I have no compunction about bluntly shutting the discussion down ("too complicated", "not interesting", "let's talk about something else").
Incidentally, many of the expat kids I grew up with had / have the same issue and the same reaction to it as you and I.
Posted by: Paul at May 20, 2006 3:41 PM
:)
Posted by: DREAM at May 22, 2006 8:39 PM