½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Hi and welcome to ½ûÂþÌìÌà wisk!

Hope the forum will provide you with some useful advices soon.

Regards
Armand

Filipino-American in Beijing.

Sometimes I get confused for being Chinese. There's no real disadvantage unless people come up and try to speak to you. It happens most often by store employees when you're shopping. Even then "Wǒ bù huì shuō zhōngwén" (I don't speak Chinese) will get them off your back.

I'm not an expert at Chinese attitudes towards other nationalities, but I think China and Korea have good relations. There's a fairly large pocket of Koreans going to university here in Wudaokou. Japanese-Chinese relations is a bit more tricky. The two countries has had history of conflict in the past century that still springs up occasionally. I recently saw Flowers of War, about the Nanking Massacre during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. It's a highly controversial issue and you might want to get a second opinion on that.

Otherwise, it's not that big of a deal. If you look Chinese, you'll blend in. You don't, then it's no big deal.