The question: "What nationality are you?"

It's not a simple question to answer. Not for me it isn't. I say, "half Chinese, half Korean," and if I'm not asked for further explanation, it's cool. In the company of other Asians, however, that often leads to, "So which parent is Korean and which one is Chinese?" That's not so hard to answer, but it gets bothersome when people start asking, "What kind of Chinese?" Sometimes it's just, "Mandarin or Cantonese?"... as if there are only those two kinds of Chinese! How do I answer these questions accurately in under 10 words?

Mom's parents were born in China, mainland somewhere... but they met and married in the Philippines. My mom and all her siblings were born in the Philippines, so they speak Tagalog and "FuChienHua" (don't tell me I didn't sound that out right - give me a break). So what kind of Chinese does that make me? I guess I can say I'm more Mandarin than Cantonese, though Mandarin isn't really a type of Chinese. (Mandarin-speaking is.) And even if that would suffice as an answer, albeit a poor one, it might not be the right call if the person asking wants to carry on a conversation with me in either dialect. I actually understand more Cantonese than Mandarin because I hung out with Cantonese-speakers in college and learned a few things, but I really don't understand either one well enough to be comfortable telling anyone I'm one or the other. I find myself having to explain that to people too... why my parents didn't teach me either Chinese or Korean while I was growing up.

See, it's not a simple question to answer.

Why does it even matter what kind of Chinese I am? Why do people feel the need to drill down to that level of detail, even when just having met me randomly at a club? Can I just make up a simple answer that says it all, such as "I'm Taiwanese" or "I'm Japanese"? No, because it wouldn't be believable.

Why can't I just say, "I'm American?" ...and have the line of questioning stop at that?