You must remember your roots (Taiwan)

When I was working in Taiwan, they used to have a go at me for calling myself 新加坡人 (Xīnjiāpōrén / Singaporean) rather than 中國人 / 中国人 (Zhōngguórén / Chinese). 

A doctor in a Taipei hospital even said, in English, when he found out I was from Singapore, 

“Ah, Singapore!  Your prime minister Lee Kuan Yew calls himself a huárén (華人), not a Zhōngguórén (中國人),” 

adding sneeringly, “VERY FUNNY!”

After a few more times of being told off for not calling myself a Zhōngguórén, i.e., for being a traitor, I’d turn round and ask them, “Why are you happy to call Americans ‘Měiguórén’ (美國人) and Australians ‘Àozhōurén (澳洲人), even though they’re really Europeans apart from the indigenous Red Indians and aborigines?” My landlord — a retired soldier from Jiāngsū province who’d gone over to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek — said, “They are barbarians, they don’t know their roots. You are Chinese, you have to remember your roots.”

I then said, “OK, then why do Chinese people present their names in the Western order of personal name first, then surname, e.g., Mei Ling Wang, rather than the proper Chinese version of Wang Mei Ling? What’s happened to being true to your roots?” 

The answer:   “These barbarians are so stupid they need to have Chinese names presented to them their way.” 

(Taiwan, 1975–1976)

For those who need an explanation, a very rough one: 

—> 華 / 华 huá is an alternative name for China and the Chinese civilisation and culture, so it goes back to antiquity.  

—> 中國 / 中国 / Zhōngguó = “middle nation”, which is more political (because of the “nation” in the name), which is why Singapore doesn’t use this for labelling Singaporeans who are Chinese by blood (but not citizens of China the political entity).