guessing game

believe it or not, i get questioned about my ethnicity even here in Hong Kong, in my own ancestors' country! i've encountered locals who'd start to talk to me in English as though they don't think i'm Chinese or can understand Chinese. just the other day, i hopped into a taxi and had the following conversation (in Cantonese, mind you) with the driver, who's also Chinese:

me (getting into taxi): to Wan Chai Road, please.
driver: sure... (5 seconds later) are you Thai?
me: who me? no.
driver: Filipina?
me: noooo...
driver: you're not? has anyone ever told you that you look Thai or Filipina?
me: oh yeah, i've heard that many times before... (pause) i'm Chinese.
driver: YOU ARE?! REALLY?!
me: yeah. my parents used to live in Hong Kong too.
driver: no kidding!

do i really NOT look Chinese? ever since high school, many people have told me that i look like other ethnicities. i got mostly Filipina and recently Thai, a bit of Vietnamese or Hawaiian, and Cambodian once. some kind of Southeast Asian, basically. a few people have guessed Eurasian before, and even Mexican once (huh?)! i really don't mind people guessing at my ethnicity. i think it's pretty cool to look multi-ethnic (and, as someone just told me last week, "exotic"), and i'm always amused at what ethnicity people will guess.
but you'd think that my own people would be able to tell that i'm Chinese, right?