China

[Benm]

That has to do with Hong Kong being a more or less independent terrirory from mainland china until fairly recently. It was a british colony until 1997, when it was handed over to china and now is a 'special administrative region'.

Inhabitants of hong kong see themselves as such, not as chinese citizens although they technically might be by now. Under british rule the country/city was more or less independent and prospered, with income levels far surpassing that of china.

It also means by how 'chinese' is interpreted. If it means the genetic background there is not much of a problem, but hong kong inhabitants are not comfortable with the meaning 'subject of the state of china'. You might find similar problems with people from Taiwan, although that island calls itself china too. They are the 'republic of china', as opposed to the 'peoples republic of china' (i.e. the big landmass with capitol bejing where ebay stuff comes from and that borders hong kong).

I'm not sure how much offense is taken though, as it could be an honest mistake, especially since these peoples share the same genetic background and are hard to tell apart. Dutch people can take offense to being called germans just as well, but if it's an honest mistake or due to lack of knowledge of the difference it should not be a big deal.

 

[Laser Chick]

People mistake Dutch for German? Odd :thinking:

 

[Benm]

It happens often enough, especially when speaking Dutch, and the difference between Dutch, Deustsch and German is not that wellknown.

I'm personally not offended by such mix ups at all. I've head australians thinking i was american, and vice versa, due to my accent changing after spending some time with a group that speaks a certain dialect of english. I guess i should make a bit more effort to stick to british english, but that makes it just that much harder to blend in