When I was in Beijing,

Students in Tsinghua thought I am local before I speak

When I was in Beijing,

Taxi drivers are not sure where I'm from when I speak

The usual guesses are Malaysia and Hong Kong

When I was in Beijing,

Ignorant sales assistant thought I'm from India (?!)

When I was in Beijing,

Waitresses in a Chinese restaurant assumed I'm Korean when I didn't respond to what they were saying (the area I lived in has a high population of Korean students)

When I was on the train from Beijing to Hong Kong,

A freelance photographer from Britain guessed I'm from Hong Kong when we were introducing ourselves on the 24 hours train ride

When I was in Chengdu,

Taxi driver guessed we were from Guangzhou or Guangdong when we speak

When I was in Hong Kong,

Sales assistant thought I'm from Taiwan

When I was in Macau,

Bad attitude waitress thought we were from mainland China

Bcos we speak Chinese and not Cantonese

She made nasty comments and we didn't want to pay the service charge bcos of their bad service

When I'm in Singapore,

A Shanghai artist thought I'm from China when I speak to him

Bcos he said I speak 标准普通话 (accurate Chinese)

When I'm in Singapore,

A financial consultant I met at Harborfront asked me whether I'm Singaporean

She said I don't look local

She said I look very demure and she thought I'm from Vietnam

When I asked RS whether I look like a Singaporean,

He said I don't

He thought I was a Malaysian when we first met

He always tease me about saying hi to my compatriots (同胞) when we see students from China

So I'm from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, India & Vietnam. Result of the Chinese diaspora. But why no one thinks I'm Singaporean? Bcos of my look? Dressing? Language? What does a typical Singaporean male or female look like?